Until The Day I Die
by Sci-Fi Raptor
Summary: DONEMany years ago Princess Kagome promised to marry her childhood friend, but contact was lost and now her people grow anxious for a marriage. She goes on a mission where she has to find it again and gets abducted by our good freind Inuyash!
1. Chapter One: Memories

Until The Day I Die

Chapter One: Memories

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters.

NOTE: Some people have commented that this story can get a bit confusing, but I will tell you upfront that most (if not all) of your confusion should be undone as you get closer to the story's ending.

~

The Valley was usually peaceful at this time. After the harvest, and the celebration that followed it, the villagers had relatively peaceful lives just enjoying their break from the backbreaking farm work. In a fairly small plot of land that was one of the feudal lord's summer retreats, two youngsters were playing hide-and-seek.

"3…2…1… ready or not, here I come!" yelled the little girl, opening her eyes after the countdown. She had black hair and eyes, and was wearing a royal kimono. She ran along the yard, looking behind every tree, rock and haystack. She searched the house, barn and henhouse, but still she couldn't find her playmate. After fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, she finally gave up. "I give up!" she proclaimed.

"Aww… I thought you would have found me for sure this time," the boy said, crawling from under the henhouse. He was in a coverall made of red fur, dirty from the mud under the house. He had a necklace made of teeth around his neck. The wind blew his black, but dirty hair, as he looked at the girl with his glittering black eyes.

"That's no fair!" she pouted. "We said no hiding under things," she said, on the verge of tears. "Sit boy!" she suddenly said. The boy's necklace suddenly glowed and his face was buried in the dirt.

"Hey, what was that for," the boy said, spitting out a worm.

"You said if you cheated again I could do that," she said apologetically.

"I'm sorry…" the boy said sincerely, the way little kids do when they really are. "I know, how about we go to the lake!" he said excitedly.

"But your ma said we have to be in the house before the sun sets," the girl said hesitantly.

"Don't worry about it, she always says that," he said, holding her wrist. The two ran to the lake. By the time they reached there, they chanced to see a beautiful sunset, and sat in their secret spot. The girl put her head on the boy's shoulder.

"I heard this legend once," the girl said shyly.

"Oh yeah? What was it about?"

"I heard that if a couple get married in the Temple of Kings, they will live happily together forever."

"Really?"

"Yeah," the girl said, this time more firmly.

"Lets make a promise," he said, holding her hand. "When we grow up, we'll get married there."

"Really?" she said.

"I promise," he said, holding out his pinky.

"So do I!" she said excitedly, and wrapped her pinky around his.

"Kagome! Princess Kagome! Where are you two?"

"We're here Nanny!" Kagome said loudly as the two left their secret spot.

"There you are Kagome!" the woman said exasperated. Your parents are here Kagome, and you have to leave very soon," the woman said, forcing her to go back to the house.

"But its not even sunset yet." Kagome protested.

"Child, considering the things that I go through for you, leaving a little early shouldn't be that hard."

"Alright…" Kagome said in defeat.

"See you later Kagome," the boy said.

"Remember our promise!" Kagome said, trying to keep up with the boy's mother.

Kagome… Wake up Kagome… 

            "Huh?" Kagome said, slowly rising. She opened her eyes to see one of her mistresses with their oh-too-happy smiles on her face. "What now?"

            "Another suitor has come to see you today," the mistress reported.

            "Again?" Kagome said annoyed. "Might as well get started then," she said, slowly getting out of bed. For the past few weeks, suitor after suitor came from faraway lands to try to get Kagome's hand in marriage. But they were all rejected. Most just seemed too arrogant, others evil. The ones that she did seem to like, her mother rejected because their kingdom was too small or insignificant. Or maybe it was because of the promise. Those memories came back to her in her dreams so much since…

            "Are you alright lady Kagome?" the mistress asked when she noticed the tear.

            "I'm okay," Kagome said, regaining her composure. She had to be strong. What she had done then was over and it would probably never happen again.

            She met the suitor in the throne room. He was a prince from a bordering kingdom. His name was Naraku.

~

"Inuyasha, I heard that there's gonna be a really big haul sometime this week," a flea named Myoga said to his master's ear.

"Really?" he said indifferently. At that moment, a big haul didn't seem nearly as interesting as the bug that was making its way across the bar table.

"What kind of haul is it?" someone seated next to him asked.

"I heard that they were gonna send the Shikon Jewel to the Temple of Kings," the flea said.

"What was that?" Inuyasha said, his interest peaked.

"I said, the Shikon Jewel will be transported to the Temple of Kings"

"Say what?"

"I said-"

"I heard you dammit," Inuyasha said annoyed.

"You mean the jewel that can give its possessor extraordinary powers?" the brute nearby asked.

"Yes, those are the ones I am talking about," the flea said. The brute suddenly stood up and grabbed Myoga with his fingernails, tapping Inuyasha lightly.

"You're gonna tell me everything you know about that loot, pipsqueak," the hulk demanded. He was answered by a sudden blow to the face by Inuyasha. Myoga quickly climbed up to Inuyasha's shoulder and thanked him. "Thank you so much for saving Inuya-" but was cut off by Inuyasha.

"Don't you EVER touch me without my consent!" Inuyasha said enraged. The hulk was quickly surrounded by his cronies, who helped him back to his feet.

"No one makes a fool out of Ryoko!" the hulk said, and threw a punch. Inuyasha easily dodged, and responded by a swift jab to the ribs. A crowd quickly formed around the two, and started going into a frenzy as the two tore each other apart. Myoga quickly jumped to a safer place to watch…

"This is getting very boring," Inuyasha said, actually stopping Ryoko's fist in his hand in the middle of a punch. Ryoko tried to push through with the punch, but Inuyasha started squishing his fist. The two just stood there, Ryoko using all his might to finish his punch, and Inuyasha grinding his hand. Finally the hulk gave up and drew his hand back. He moaned and screamed and the crowd dissipated, unhappy about the sure win that didn't happen.

"Lets get going," Inuyasha said, walking out the bar. "Wait for meeee!!!" Myoga said, desperately trying to catch up to him. As the door closed behind him, an ominous wind blew it closed, showing a picture of Inuyasha's face and a really large reward under it.

~

            "Lady Kagome," Naraku said, bowing.

            "Good day," Kagome said, bowing also. "I assume that you, too, have come to seek my hand in marriage," she said indifferently.

            "Men would forfeit their lives just to see your beauty," he said with a cold smile. He went up to her and kissed the back of her hand. 

            "You flatter me," she said, taking her hand back and trying not to betray her disgust at his lips' touch. 

            "But no, I have not come for your hand. I will only escort you and your train through my kingdom," he said, his face betraying nothing.

            "What?" Kagome said in surprise. 

            "Naraku! Welcome!" the Queen boomed as she entered the throne room.

            "Good day, Queen Higurashi," Naraku said coolly. They shook hands by their wrists as a symbol for their new alliance and the Queen sat on her throne.

            "What is this I hear about 'escorting'?" Kagome asked her mother, far too tactfully.

            "Ah, yes. I was going to tell you about that," she started. "Farleigh!!!" she bellowed. Almost immediately, a scrawny but tall man came lumbering into the room with a box in his hands. Kagome suddenly felt a presence.

            "Here it is, you highness," Farleigh said in a squeaky voice.

            "Show them the Jewel," the Queen ordered.

            "As you command," he said. He went up to the two and slowly opened the box. Kagome looked at Naraku and saw his eyes glitter. But that didn't matter because the presence suddenly increased many fold and consumed the room. She looked into the box and saw a peach colored pearl with a weird feeling coming from the center of it.

            "What is it?" Kagome said in awe.

            "This is known as the Shikon Jewel. It is said that the Jewel holds great power within it," the Queen said, then darkly "…among other things. It is one of our kingdom's biggest secrets and is never taken out except for certain days."

            "But what does that have to do with me?" Kagome asked.

            "In two weeks," the Queen continued, "all the planets and our moon will be aligned. 'If the jewel is not in its mount within the Temple of Kings, great misfortune will befall our land,'" the Queen said ominously, as if quoting a prophet.

            "So?" Kagome said.

            "As you know by now," Queen started, "you have the power to sense the Jewel. It is a power that all the daughters of the King traditionally have had. It is also tradition for the daughter to accompany the Jewel on its way to the mount."

            "So I have to go to the Temple?" Kagome said, masking her anger.

            "But your highness. The parliament insists that Princess Kagome become married soon," Farleigh said, irked.

            "Well in that case, I'd love to go," Kagome said, walking to the door.

            "I will be waiting for you," Naraku said to her as she left. He turned to the Queen, said his goodbyes and left. Farleigh finally spoke up.

            "Your highness, Kagome is your only heir. If something were to happen to her…"

            "You may not understand now, but there are certain forces at play during this critical stage; Kagome _must _go. Beside, Kagome would never marry anyone, no matter who told her to," the Queen said.

            "You could at least arrange a marriage," Farleigh pleaded. "The parliament is very concerned about the continuation of you line. They have been constantly telling me to press the issue to you, but until now, I saw no need to tell you to do what you were already doing.

            "Actually, Farleigh, those suitors were all for show to appease parliament into thinking that she will marry soon. But a marriage has already been arranged," the Queen said.

            "Really!" Farleigh said excitedly. "Who is the suitor?"

            "I can't tell you. Kagome made the promise with him when she was young."

            "Such a marriage has been arranged and princess Kagome hasn't even made it public who she intends to marry yet? Does she not even think of all the anxiety that she is causing the government?"

            "There is a perfectly logical explanation for that," the Queen said chuckling.

            "And what may that be?"

            "She doesn't know his name," he said, chuckling a little more.

            "She could at least bring him to court."

            "Well, there's another problem to that. She hasn't heard of him in one and a half years…" the Queen said quietly. Farleigh almost had a stroke.

~

            "And I will receive payment once I deliver the package?" Inuyasha asked once more.

            "Yes," said a hooded figure, "we will exchange the sword for the package."

            "Give my thanks to the master," Inuyasha said, bowing.

            "Naraku will be pleased," the hooded one said. Then it turned to dust, blowing away with the wind.

            "So damn creepy, Naraku's minions," Inuyasha thought aloud.

            "Yes, but we…" Myoga started, but corrected himself when he saw Inuyasha's face, "… you are getting quite a deal. Tokygin is one of the most powerful swords ever created."

            "Well, anything is better then this pile of rust," Inuyasha said, eying the sword at his waist.

            "Why would your father give you a defective sword like that?" asked Myoga. "And why do you keep it?" He retracted when Inuyasha gave him a flash of anger.

            "That is not your concern," he said coldly.

            "Sorry master," Myoga said and squirmed into the recesses of the robe of the Fire Rat's fur. Inuyasha left the meeting site and went back to the forest trail that would lead to the main road and the ambush site. 

            "Iron reaver, soul stealer!" Inuyasha suddenly burst out.

            "Ah! What's going on?" Myoga cried as he frantically tried to leave his safe hiding place to see what was going on.

            Before him, he could a freshly made path diverging into the forest. Charred tree trunks were being showered with burning splinters, covering the forest floor with thousands of burning embers, threatening to start a forest fire. Within the dark billows of smoke, a purple dust danced in the bright night air as a virgin wind breezed it through the forest.

            _Since when was Inuyasha-sama this powerful?_ Myoga thought in awe.

            "I see Naraku is still keeping tabs on me," Inuyasha said, picking up remnants of a broken doll. He sneered at it and threw it back into the burning forest floor and went on his way.

~

[Day One, 13 Days Until Planetary Alignment]

            For some reason, Naraku suddenly winced. And for some even weirder reason, Kagome asked about it.

            "Are you okay?"

            "… I'm fine," Naraku said, regaining his composure. He helped Kagome mount her horse and then mounted his own. He gave his men some orders and the train started its long and perilous journey. _I wonder why mother didn't send anyone from the royal guard on this trip. She seems unusually trusting with this person._ Naraku trotted up next to her.

            "Are you comfortable, Lady Kagome?" Naraku said politely.

            "Yes I am," Kagome said as dryly as she could. She didn't really feel like talking to anyone, especially someone like Naraku. She had these weird feelings about him. Fortunately, he backed off and appeared to be in deep thought. She went into her own thoughts, but suddenly realized they were all about him (about how untrustworthy he was). But she realized that _all_ she thought about was he and blushed.

            _I have been too lax with Inuyasha, _Naramu thought. _He must be taught that no one can undermine my instruments or me. When he gives my minion the package, I will make sure that he learns his lesson._ He felt someone staring at him, and saw Kagome suddenly look away. He made a cold smile of satisfaction and went up to her once again.

            "The sky is so beautiful today, is it not?" he said.

            "Yes it seems," Kagome said, watching two hummingbirds chase one another. She saw a butterfly land on a branch and flex its wings; then it came to a dead stop.

            "In all its greatness and beauty, nature is very fragile," Naraku stated.

            "Aye," Kagome responded. She felt someone staring at her, and saw that it was Naraku who was riding a few inches away from her. He held her hand up.

            "Like I said before, Lady Kagome, men would forfeit their lives for a chance to see your beauty. I feel blessed that I am one of those who have been graced by your presence," he said, kissing her hand. Kagome blushed.

            _Maybe he's not that bad after all,_ Kagome thought.

            "Halt, you have to pay the-" a soldier started as a man dressed in all white made his way across the bridge.

            "Out of my way," the man said, whipping him with a green whip; the soldier was sliced into two. The man continued to walk across the bridge, undisturbed as everyone on it made a path for him. Then they crowed around the foolish soldier who tried to stop him, his lower half spasming as his upper half passed out.

            An evil wind blew and the man in white stopped. He stood as if listening to the howling of the air. Then a blue light surrounded him, and he flew off to some other direction.

~

            "This is taking quite a while now…" Myoga complained in his warm and comfy position with the red fire rat's fur. Inuyasha was hiding in a bush, positioned so that he could see outside, but not be seen himself.

            "Shuddup," Inuyasha said annoyed, "I think I see them."

            From what he could see, it was a train of ten horses, seven of which were Naraku's. There were also two carriages, pulled by two horses each in the rear. Naraku and the princess were in the third row, chatting about something. He had never seen Naraku, this was the first time he ever had a chance. He made a whistle at a frequency that the humans couldn't hear, and Naraku knew of his presence. All Naraku had to do was get the princess to expose the box, and he would make his move. The train got dangerously close, but at the last second the princess showed the box.

            _Now all I have to do is grab the box and run._ Inuyasha thought.

~

            "Yes, it does feel stronger when I open it. I wonder why?" Kagome said, as she opened the Jewel's box. Naraku was testing a theory about the Jewel and Kagome's connection to it. Suddenly, a red blur dropped from the trees and took the jewel.

            "Oh my lord!" Kagome said, realizing what just happened.

            "Follow it, you idiots!" Naraku yelled at his men. The men sluggishly started chasing after it. When they apparently realized what just happened, they sped up and started shooting at it. But the thief had too much of a lead and got away.

            "What am I gonna do?" Kagome said, trembling from the sudden encounter.

            "First you must calm down," Naraku said too calmly. "Then we can think things through."

            "Yes, you're right," she said, and rested on Naraku's shoulder. Suddenly she felt the presence of the shard come toward her, and pain shoot from her shoulder.

~

            A red blur fell from the trees and stole the jewel.

            "That's exactly what I'm gonna do," Inuyasha said to himself as he saw the blur running away. "Wait a sec… if I'm here, who's that?"

            "Run!" Myoga said urgently.

            "Crap!" Inuyasha said in anger. He quickly caught up with the blur and attacked where he thought it was holding the jewel. He seemed to be in luck, as he saw the jewel's light brighten the path. But it became very intense and exploded. Five pieces flew into five different directions, one of which was towards the train. He chased after it in a heartbeat. He saw the princess fall off of her horse, with blood in her shoulder. He saw light coming from the wound and quickly hitched her on his shoulders. Before the guards could do anything, he already was in the trees. He didn't get a chance to see Naraku's face, but knew how angry it probably looked. _Oh well, I still got _part _of that damned jewel_.

            A few moments later, he was waiting in the cabin where he was supposed to drop off the jewel. He took the jewel shard out of the princess and dressed her wound. Then he shackled her to the wall. 

            One of Naraku's minions opened the door. Inuyasha could tell that this wasn't the regular type of minion. This was probably one of the minions that Naraku would speak through directly to him.

            "That was very sloppy Inuyasha. You may have ruined all of my plans," the minion said in cold rage.

            "How was I supposed to know that there was another Demon there, master Na-" he stopped short when the creature gestured him to be silent. He listened and heard the human wake up. Obviously, he still wanted the princess to marry him, and her finding out that what just happened was Naraku's doing would make it impossible.

            "Still, you should not have destroyed the jewel like that."

            "Well, I just basically blindly-" Inuyasha started, but was cut off.

            "I don't care. Now you have to use the princess to find the rest of the shards. When you do, I will "rescue" her from you and be the hero," he said, saying the last word in disgust.

            "How will I get her to cooperate?"

            "That's your problem. Just get it done quickly." Inuyasha was about to ask something else, but the minion fell to the floor into a heap of dust. This was followed by the princess' scream.

            "Dammit! Shut your trap!" Inuyasha said, clamping his hand over her mouth. When it looked like she would stop, he slowly took his hand off. He quickly put it back on as she let out another blood curling scream. "Listen real carefully, cause I'm only gonna say this once. You have to find out where the shards are. Once I get them all, I will let you go, understood?"

            "Uh huh," she nodded under his hand. He slowly retracted it, but put it back on when he saw her about to scream again. He looked around the area and noticed Naraku's eyes watching him.

            "You saw that guy that turned to dust back there?" he asked, she acknowledged. "That's gonna be you if you don't do exactly what I say," he said. He took his hand off, but thankfully, she didn't scream. "You will find the last four remaining Jewel shards, and then I will let you go once I get them all. Understand?"

            "Yes," Kagome said. She knew better then to argue with this brute now, with or without the power to turn people to dust. Inuyasha took the shackles off the wall, but kept them on her.

            "Lead the way, your highness," Inuyasha said sarcastically.


	2. Chapter Two: The Forest of Light

Until The Day I Die

Chapter Two: The Forest of Light

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters.

Just in case I messed up and no one got it, Inuyasha has never seen Naraku in person, so he doesn't know what he looks like (same with Sesshomaru).

~

[Day One, Continued]

It must have been some terrible dream. There she was, talking to prince Naraku (_Ahh, handsome, brave prince Naraku,_) when she was suddenly snatched into the sky. The suddenness caused princess Kagome to pass out. When she woke up, she was shackled to the wall of some house. She looked up and saw a gray haired person in red robes. She also saw the thing in front of her turn to dust. And here she was, leading him to the these shards…

            When she saw his red robes, she thought that he was her childhood friend, whom she only knew by nickname, Tamago. It had something to do with a turtle, and she gave it to him when he lost a race with her (one in which she was sure he let her win). But it couldn't have been her friend. He had black eyes and hair. He also had a magical toothed necklace. And finally, he wasn't this mean!

~

The first shard was conveniently located deep within the local kingdom's military area. It was in a castle where a shogun lived.

            "Guess that shard really doesn't want me to get it," Inuyasha said. "Myoga, watch the brat while I get it from the castle."

            "Yes, master Inuyasha," Myoga said and went on her shoulder.

            "Ewww! Get it off of me!" Kagome protested.

            "Shut up or you'll get caught," Inuyasha reprimanded her. She complied, and made Inuyasha more confident that he wasn't walking into a trap. As he left the observation point, he could hear Kagome squirm as Myoga was probably trying to suck her blood.

            "Halt, who goes there?" a castle guard yelled to Inuyasha as he walked up to the entrance.

            "Inuyasha," he said cockily. He decided that these guys would be easy pickings and this would take very little time. He raised his hand, "Iron reaver, soul stealer," he said, ripping the front entrance of the castle to shreds. Hastily, the castle defenders gathered at the front to protect the castle and its lord.

            "Move before you get hurt," Inuyasha said impatiently. None of them moved, so Inuyasha improvised. He ripped a tree out of the ground and threw it at all of them. They were all caught by it and it was stacked on top of them. Inuyasha walked in and searched the castle for the shogun. He found the shogun cowering in a closet. And he didn't have the shard with him. In a rage, Inuyasha tore a hole through the castle wall and ran to where Kagome was supposed to be. Only, she wasn't there.

            He found Myoga flattened on the ground and put him on his shoulder. Then he sniffed the air. _Its fresh, she was just here._ He located where she was heading and made chase. In a few moments, he was on top of her. Literally; he had tripped on a rock at the last second. He turned her so that she was facing him and put his face right up to hers.

~

            His face was so close. She didn't know why, but she wanted so badly to kiss him. Here she was, a thug on top of her who would probably rape her later, wanting to have him kiss her! He seemed to want to do the same, and he inched forward, holding her head in her hands.

            "Myoga, give it to her," he said. She felt his dirty fingers prying her mouth open. Instinctively, she resisted, but it was futile. She felt something land on her tongue. Then she felt a prick and then nothing. She couldn't feel her tongue anymore.

            "Try something like that again, and you might not have a tongue to speak of," Inuyasha warned. Then he smirked. "That sedative won't go away for a few hours; careful when you bite," he said and gave her a hard piece of bread. He stood up and picked her up by the shoulders.

            "Now, lets start again: Where are the jewel shards?"

            "You cou alleath askth nigthly," Kagome sputtered.

            "Faster then I thought," Inuyasha said to himself. "What was that?"

            Kagome tried many times to say it, while Inuyasha laugh his head off at her feeble attempts. After a few minutes, Inuyasha finally understood that she said 'You could at least ask nicely,' and asked her nicely.

            "Can you please tell me where the jewel shards really are so I don't have to slice you tongue off?" Inuyasha said with an earnest face.

            "RRRR" Kagome cried in rage, and gave up. She pointed to the northwest and the two started walking in that direction.

            Suddenly, Inuyasha cried, "I can't wait any longer!" and grabbed Kagome. She was frozen in fear that she was about to be raped, by a demon on top of that. But she felt his back in front of her and saw that he was carrying her.

            "What's wrong, you look like you've seen a ghost," Inuyasha said nonchalantly.

            "Warn me next time you do something like that," Kagome said, exasperated.

            "I was just trying to speed things up," he said annoyed. "Its not like I'd want to spend any more time then I'd need to with you."

            "Hmp," Kagome said like a royal brat. "Head a little more left," she said, breaking the half an hour-long silence. Bored out of her mind, she tried talking to Inuyasha. Even though the scenery was beautiful and she had never traveled this fast, it got old quickly.

            "So, what's your name?" Kagome started, realizing she didn't know his name.

            "Inuyasha, what's it to ya?" He said annoyed.

            "More left," she said, realizing that they were getting off course. Inuyasha adjusted and she continued. "If I'm going to work this closely to you, the least I should do is know your name. My name is Kagome Higurashi, and I'm princess of the Higurashi domain."

            "So?" Inuyasha said rudely.

            "If you let me go, I can promise you a great reward," she said.

            "So?"

            "I can make you a rich man…"

            "Rrr," he growled. "I'm not a man."

            "Rich demon…"

            "I don't care who you are, or what you can give me, because once I deliver you and the Jewel to the Temple of Kings, I will probably acquire something I have been waiting most of my life to get."

            "Probably? If you take me home, I can _guarantee _a handsome reward," she said.

            "It doesn't matter. As long as I get that far, I'll be happy."

            _There's no convincing this guy,_ Kagome thought to herself, realizing he had a one-track mind and finally gave up. She just continued to talk about her life and the demon grunted, as if it were listening.

~

When she woke up, it looked like it was midnight. She was on the ground next to an extinguished fire. She looked up and saw the moon the stars and Jupiter by itself. Inuyasha was sleeping up against a tree with his sword in front of him.

_This might be my chance._ Kagome thought. She quietly got up and started walking away.

"If you're going to use the bathroom, say at least ten feet away from here," Inuyasha suddenly said as she stepped into the woods, almost giving her a heart attack.

"You're awake?" Kagome managed to say when her heart stopped racing.

"Why else would I have removed your shackles," he said. Kagome unconsciously felt her wrists and saw that he wasn't lying.

"Thanks," she said and left. 

"Whatever," he said.

~

[Day Two]

            It was early morning when Kagome woke up. The sun was just rising and some birds started chirping. She felt someone staring at her and saw Inuyasha staring at her chest.

            "Get those perverted thoughts out of your head," she snapped. He smirked.

            "Then you don't care about the worm on the shard," he said merrily. She looked down and saw a caterpillar on the jewel shard. She had made a necklace of it, just because she had nothing else to do.

            "Eek! Get it off of me," she cried.

            "Do it yourself," Inuyasha said. He got up and got his belongings together. Kagome jumped hysterically, finally getting the insect off of her. Inuyasha looked at her roughed up face and knew he would treasure it for years to come.

            "What are you smiling at?" Kagome said testily, obviously not a morning person.

            "You should see yourself without the royal get up, you look better," Inuyasha said, and started walking off.

            "What was that?" she said and followed him.

            By midday, they finally arrived where the shard was located. The three (Myoga had finally joined up after hitching rides from other animals from the Shogun's castle) warily entered a dark forest. They walked towards the heart of it for a very long time.

            "The Forest of Light," Myoga finally said. "Legend says that inside there is a mage that protects the Sacred Jewel, a legendary stone that emits a light that can heal living things of many illnesses."

            "Then why is it so dark?" Kagome asked skeptically.

            "That is an interesting question," Myoga said, "probably with an interesting answer. And I believe we can find out over there," Myoga said, pointing to a damaged temple towards the center of the forest.

            "The shard's presence is really intense over there," Kagome confirmed.

            "Then lets go," Inuyasha said, upping the group's speed. In about a third of an hour, the group finally arrived at the entrance.

~

            The blue ball of light descended from the sky. Its target was nearby. Sesshomaru materialized out of the blue light and landed lightly on his feet. Nearby, a small, dark green creature appeared before him. 

"Lord Sesshomaru," the creature started and bowed, "Naraku sends his greetings and is happy to see that you have arrived here as per his instructions."

"Tell him that I am happy to serve," he said unhappily.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that for you today. I, Jaken, must accompany you as you do this task."

"Naraku never told me of this!" Sesshomaru said angrily.

"Master Naraku thought you would feel this way, so he sent this for you," the little one said and gave him a sword inside its sheath. "Its name is Tokygin."

"Tokygin…" Sesshomaru repeated and inspected the sword. He took it out of its sheath briefly and put it back. Then he placed it next to his own sword and started walking. He could see the now dark trees of the forest before him.

~

            "Queen Higurashi! Queen Higurashi!" Farleigh said insistently. He had just heard word that the Princess had been kidnapped!  After a lot of traumatic searching, he found the Queen on a balcony looking in the direction of the Temple of Kings.

            "Queen Higurashi, I've scoured the whole castle to find you," Farleigh said exasperated. He stopped a while to catch his breath and continued. "Queen Higurashi, I have terrible news. As I had feared, Princess Kagome has been kidnapped," he said urgently. The Queen must have taken it well, since she didn't flinch or show any kinds of movement.

            "I already knew that," the Queen said.

            "Well, then, the good news is that Prince Naraku had come back to his homeland unharmed and he is sending all his subjects the find Princess Kagome and apprehend the fiend." This made her flinch.

            "Fiend? Naraku is the Fiend," she said angrily.

            "What do you mean, my liege?"

            "Kagome's capture was Naraku's doing. As for his 'search parties', even if they exist, they will find nothing. Naraku will keep her whereabouts a secret from everyone except his most loyal subjects. As we speak, his top man is probably after her right now." This news made Farleigh's heart skip a beat.

            "Th-th-then we must send in the army to bring her back immediately," he said.

            "No," Queen Higurashi said matter-of-factly.

            "But-"

            "No!" she repeated. "We don't have the strength to invade Naraku's nation _and_ search for her in time." Farleigh looked at her in defeat.

            "Then what can we do about it?"

            "Nothing," she said bluntly. Then she made a small smile. "We can do nothing but have faith in my son."

            "Son?!" Farleigh said in shock. Many heads turned to the balcony.

~

            Everything was rotten about the place: the wood was rotten, the plants were rotten, even the air was rotten. And according to Kagome, the shard seemed a little bit different, as if it were being corrupted. Kagome made the first move and led the way. Inuyasha followed with Myoga on his shoulder. The ground was three steps lower then the temple's platform, probably because the forest floor was full of moist stuff that had probably made its way onto the temple and caused its wood to rot. Kagome also noticed that the temple had some kind of drain that was about four foot wide and covered the whole perimeter around the temple. 

At the corners of the temple were statues depicting some kind of mythological scene. One was of a forest type god, another a fire type god, yet another a water type god, and finally an earth type god. Each of them was looking towards the center of the temple's roof. There stood a great statue of a dog demon with giant fangs. Even though it was inanimate, the dog statue had an aura of authority and courage around it that made the group look in awe. Then Kagome's foot fell through one of the steps going to the temple's platform.

"Wench, watch where you're walking," Inuyasha said in an annoyed tone. He broke the wood around her leg and gently pulled it out. He grabbed her kimono.

"Ahh!" she shrieked, surprised by the sudden move. "Get off!" she screamed, punching his head. She heard a rip and he moved back.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" Inuyasha screamed at her, a large part of her kimono in his hand.

"Whatever perverted idea you're thinking about, forget it," she spat.

"What the hell are you talking about? I was just trying to dress your leg," he said, pointing to her bloody leg. It was then the pain became apparent, her hysteria gone. "Myoga, give her some of that stuff," Inuyasha ordered as he was dressing the wound. "Hell, why are you always banging on me being a pervert? You're the one who's always thinking those thoughts!"

"Well, I'm watching you," she said, blushing when she realized that he was right. Myoga put the sedative into her leg while Inuyasha licked her wound. She was about to protest, but realized that dog saliva had healing properties and didn't want to embarrass herself again. Being that the sedative hadn't taken affect yet, she giggled at the touch of his tongue. He stopped licking her and washed the wound with water. Then he applied a slave and finally dressed the wound. He did it tightly, but she couldn't feel it since the sedative was active. Then he spat over and over and gurgled many times.

"Your leg tastes nasty…" he finally said.

"Well, someone kidnapped me and didn't let me have a bath at all," she said.

"Shut up and move," he said, giving her his shoulder for support. The three entered the temple together.

The temple was bare except for a few scripture hanging on the walls and a pedestal in the center of the room. The pedestal had a red silk pillow on top of it with a black sphere on top of it. Kagome held particular interest in the sphere.

"What do you think?" Inuyasha asked.

"I feel the shard is somewhere inside the sphere, and its becoming more corrupted every second."

"There's something amiss about this sphere," Myoga stated as Inuyasha went on the other side of the sphere.

"I think I know what it is," Kagome said and put her hand near the sphere and it seemed to disappear into it. Inuyasha had a look of horror on his face and instantly pulled it out.

"What are you thinking!" he said angrily.

"It's nothing," she said, taking her hand back, then waving it towards the sphere again. Then she lit one of the candles she saw somewhere and put it up to the sphere. "Notice it yet?"

            "Ahh, its so obvious," Myoga said.

            "What?" Inuyasha said, seeming not to understand. Kagome put the candle closer to the sphere and it dimmed immensely. It seemed as if it was going out, but the smoke was coming out the candle as it was before.

            "As you can see," Kagome said impatiently, not waiting anymore for Inuyasha to figure it out, "this sphere actually absorbs light, opposed to shining light like it's supposed to. That's why you don't see the candle's light being reflected from its surface.

            "Oh," Inuyasha said, accepting it as fact. "So how do we get it out?" Inuyasha asked.

            "_You don't…"_ a voice said.

            "Who's there," Inuyasha said.

            "Your executioner," the voice said again. Something shot out of the sphere and landed outside.

            "Kagome, stay here. Myoga, stay with her," Inuyasha said and ran outside.

            "Hey!" Kagome protested, but he was already outside.

            Inuyasha was out in time to notice the thing jump into the muck littering the forest floor.

            "Inuyasha," Kagome screamed to be heard "the shard is outside now."

            "Damn," Inuyasha said to himself. _This is what I've trained for. Now to see if today is the day I die._

            The muck took the form of the forest type god's statue around the temple, but its eyes had an evil red glow to them.

            "Inuyasha, today is the day you die," the being said simply and attacked. Inuyasha was in the air and landed on its back by the time the creature hit the ground he was standing on. The creature made a whiplash with its body and sent Inuyasha flying. Inuyasha did an iron reaver on it and spilt it into two. The halves revealed the shards location, but they joined as one before Inuyasha could do anything. Inuyasha did a few more iron reavers, attacking the beast or just blocking it when it attacked with long streams of pointy muck. He slashed and fought his way to where he thought the shard was. He ripped it out and the creature collapsed. He went up to Kagome and told her to put it in her hands.

            "What are you talking about?" she said, confused over what was going on.

            "Just do it!" he ordered, and forced her to put the shard into her cupped hands. "Now clear you mind and meditate," he instructed.

            "Did you get hit in the head?" she questioned, but Inuyasha closed her eyes with his fingers and she tried to concentrate. As she waited, she realized that the shard was becoming less corrupt. The more she thought of it, the faster it was uncorrupted until it was clean. "How did you know that?" Kagome asked when she was finished.

            "Give me that," Inuyasha said and snatched it from her.

            "Wait a second," Kagome warned when she realized he was putting it back into the sphere. The shard was becoming slightly corrupted, but the sphere suddenly lost its darkness and was shining brightly. Then something emerged from the sphere and was uncorrupting the _whole forest_. When she could see, Kagome realized that it looked exactly like the forest type god statue outside.

            "Thank you, Master Inuyasha and Lady Kagome," the being said to the both of them. The being looked at Kagome and spoke: "You may take that dressing off now. The Sacred Jewel of Life's rays have healed your wound." Kagome realized that her leg was no longer thumping and the sedative was gone.

            "Thank you," she said.

            "Thank _you_," it repeated. "If it weren't for you, I would never have escaped Naraku's clutches.

            "Naraku's clutches? As in Prince Naraku?" Kagome said surprised.

            "Prince!" it said exasperated. "More like an abomination that this world should never have seen," it said angrily.

            "Kagome, leave," Inuyasha said suddenly.

            "But-"

            "No discussion. Leave _now_," he repeated, more strongly this time. Then in a softer tone, "you can come back once I'm done talking with her," he said. She left with no more protests and watched outside. They were talking about something and Inuyasha flicked Myoga out when he realized they weren't alone.

            "Did you hear anything?" she asked Myoga when she found him.

            "They were talking about _you_," he said in shock.

            "What were they talking about," she said, suddenly afraid.

            "I don't know, I couldn't hear," the flea said and landed on her shoulder.

            "Touch me and die," Kagome said, just as he was about to take a drink.

            "Sorry…" he said and tucked himself into a fold of her worn out kimono.

            "Kagome, you may come now," the being said in a heavenly voice.

            "What was that about?" Kagome asked, hoping to be put into the loop. The being moved as if to say something, but Inuyasha intervened. 

"Its none of your business," he said angrily. He regretted it, since Kagome looked as if she was about to cry. 

"Nothing is any of my business, is it? Just as long as I find those stupid shards for you!" she said, running out, hiding her tears. The being looked down to Inuyasha.

"You should be more gentle with her, she is only a woman," the being said maternally.

"It seems you've been cooped up in that ball for too long. She's stronger than you give her credit," he said defensively.

"You seem to invest much into her," it said amused.

"Shut up, I've had enough of you and your kind's bullshit and I'm leaving now!" he said angrily, storming off.

"Wait master," the being said.

"Now what?"

"This is a gift from me to the two of you," it said, and a white diamond (the color of the Sacred Jewel in the temple) appeared before him. It had the forest's emblem on it, a leaf.

"Yes, and I can give it to me lovely wife," Inuyasha said, cracking a smile from the being.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea. This diamond has the power to heal, just like the Sacred Jewel,"

"But…" Inuyasha said, expecting a catch.

"Well, it will only work when your Tetsaiga is in its demon form," it said.

"Then I might as well let Kagome keep it. That stupid sword wont change no matter what I do," he said. "At least it might make her less mad at me."

"There is one thing you didn't try yet," the being said.

"And what's that?"

"You don't need me to tell you. You _already _know. You've been doing it. Its just a matter of when you will be able to trust the sword enough to use it in battle."

"Inuyasha, Kagome is leaving!" Myoga said, jumping into the temple.

"Well, I gotta leave now," Inuyasha said, leaving. "And remember to tell the others the _instant_ they awaken."

"I will. Goodbye master."

"Goodbye."

~

            "_What do you mean?!_" Naraku said angrily to his minion. _But I was suspecting as much._ Naraku thought, but then became calm. "Contact Sesshomaru. Tell him there is a change of plans."

~

            "Kagome, wait up!" Inuyasha said. She didn't slow down, she just walked faster. "Kagome."

            "I found the Jewel and 'I was just trying to speed things up,'" she said repeating the hurtful words he said before. "'Its not like I'd want to spend any more time then I'd need to with you.'"

            "Kagome, what are you talking about," he said, and turned her so that she faced him. She was crying.

            "I bet you're glad that you made me cry, aren't you. It seems all you want to do is make me miserable. There, are you happy? Naraku is ten times better then you. At least he treated me nicely. But _you_," she spat the word like venom, "all I am to you is a _thing_ to find the shards, aren't I?" she snapped. 

The two were standing still, Kagome trembling. Inuyasha stood there, absorbing what he just heard. His face showed pain. _Now you know how it feels_. Kagome thought to herself.

"Here," he said, showing her a beautiful diamond. For a brief moment she thought that he was about to say the two words she was wishing so badly to hear. "Obviously you think you can protect yourself. Since you're such a weak human, you can use this if you get hurt. Just stay out of my way."

He wasn't capable of remorse obviously. _I'm sorry_. That's all he had to say. She felt even worse then before.

"Get on," he gestured for her to take a seat on his back.

"Why?"

"Like I said before, 'I'm just trying to speed things up, its not like I'd want to spend any more time then I'd need to with you," he said in a tone so cold, Kagome was starting to fear for her life. She reluctantly climbed his back as quietly cried to herself.

_Why do I care so much?_ she thought all of a sudden. _I'm just his prisoner, right? _Inuyasha started speeding out of the forest.

"Die, Inuyasha!" someone suddenly said.


	3. Chapter Three: Brotherly Love

Until The Day I Die

Chapter Three: Brotherly Love

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters.

A/N: This story is winding down, and probably has one or two chapters left.

~

            A whiplash that looked like it was made of a soft green light was headed straight at Inuyasha. He positioned himself so that Kagome was in no possible danger. Myoga was probably already gone, so he didn't have to worry about him. He took a hit to the chest and was knocked back. He was flung toward a tree, but he turned himself so that he would hit it and cushion Kagome. All the while, Kagome held on for dear life with her eyes sealed shut. When the impact happened, she could feel him forcing her grip off and she let go. Then he headed to the intruder.

            "It's been some time, _little _brother," said the attacker.

            "I can see you haven't changed a _bit_, older brother," Inuyasha replied.

            _Brother?! _Kagome thought to herself. If Inuyasha was as powerful as she thought, his older brother must have been awesome.

            Sesshomaru attacked with his whiplash multiple times, but Inuyasha used his robe to shield from the attack. The two kept on jumping from tree to tree and occasionally intercepted to make a blow (DBZ style!). Sesshomaru kept on using his whip and poison punches while Inuyasha used his punch and iron reaver. Sesshomaru landed and Inuyasha followed, making sure he was between Kagome and his older brother.

            "So, what brings you here today?" Inuyasha said, panting from the sudden exercise and wounds.

            "To carry out Naraku's orders. I will now take over for you, little brother. But you must die first," he said, taking out Tokygin. "Draw your weapon," he ordered.

            "I don't need anything to take you on. A stupid sword won't make any difference."

            "Even if this 'stupid sword' is Tokygin?" he said coolly.

            "What? Naraku promised that sword to me!"

            "He said that if you can defeat me, you can keep the sword and the wretch," he said, gesturing to Kagome.

            "Leave the wench out of this," Inuyasha ordered. He regretted it the second it came out of his mouth.

            "You have the audacity to order _me_?" he said, his eyes glowing blood red. He jumped for Kagome, sword flashing.

            "Dammit!" Inuyasha said, trying to block him. He landed in front of Kagome and held up Tetsaiga, its sheath still covering it.

            "Inuyasha!" Kagome exclaimed in pure fear. (this is the part when the episode ends and you get really pissed off P)

            "Let the weak human protect itself. See how long it can survive against _me_," Sesshomaru said, hitting the sheath over and over; each blow pushed Inuyasha back. Kagome grabbed some dirt and threw it into Sesshomaru's face. Unfortunately, some invisible shield of his blasted the dust away harmlessly. "Is that the best you can do?" Sesshomaru said mockingly. He directed some kind of energy at her and she flew back. She was about to stand up, but Inuyasha bark for her to stop getting in the way.

            "But I can help you," she insisted, getting up. Sesshomaru made another hit that cracked the sheath.

            "SHUT THE HELL UP AND LET ME PROTECT YOU!" Inuyasha said in blind rage.

Ba-dump 

            "What was that?" Kagome said, not sure what he was saying.

            "Shut up and let me protect you. You have no idea what kind of mess you've become part of," Inuyasha said. Sesshomaru made a hit that chipped a piece of Tetsaiga's sheath, exposing the blade.

Ba-dump Ba-dump 

            "Inuyasha…" Kagome said and finally backed off. Sesshomaru made another hit, chipping off three large chuncks.

Ba-dump Ba-dump Ba-dump 

            _What's this that I'm feeling all of a sudden?_ Inuyasha thought suddenly, his heart racing, not because he was keeping his brother back, but because of some other emotion.

            "Time's up!" Sesshomaru suddenly said, and jumped past Inuyasha. Kagome felt something tugging from her shirt. She thought it was Myoga, but it turned out to be the diamond Inuyasha had given her. She took it out.

_Ba-dump Ba-dump Ba-dump… Ba-dump… _crack. The diamond shot out of Kagome's hand and went towards Inuyasha.

            Crack-crack-crack… Testsaiga's sheath exploded and Tetsaiga appeared to have grown larger then it normally was and the part between the blade and hilt was covered in fur. Inuyasha drove the sword up and attempted to make contact with Sesshomaru, but his shield blocked Tetsaiga before it could do any real damage.

            Sesshomaru recovered quickly and attacked Inuyasha with his whip. Unfortunately for him, Inuyasha had his own shield. Inuyasha was on his knees, shifting some of his weight to the Tetsaiga, which was grounded into the earth. In the middle of its blade, the white diamond was embedded and glowing, giving off a bright white flash every time Sesshomaru hit the shield. 

Seeing that Inuyasha was down, but impossible to attack, Sesshomaru set his sights on Kagome. He was about to slice her head off, but a yellow bolt knocked him away. He turned to see where it came from and saw that Inuyasha had somehow attacked him.

"You have improved much, little brother," Sesshomaru said. "It also seems that you value the human's life more then your own; you will share father's fate."

With that, Inuyasha got up and punched the Tokygin out of Sesshomaru's hand, causing its blade to shatter in a dark explosion. Then he grabbed Sesshomaru's hand with both of his own, and started spinning Sesshomarus around himself. When he thought he couldn't go any faster, he let go and sent Sesshomaru flying off into the distance. He didn't notice the little dark green creature move in the shadows. Inuyasha fell to his knees again.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried, running up to him. He tried standing up again, using the non-demon form of Tetsaiga as a crutch, but failed. Kagome reached him and offered her shoulder to help him up. When he was finally standing, Kagome suddenly hugged him, holding him as tightly as possible.

"I thought I was going to lose you," Kagome said through the tears. With a lot of strain, Inuyasha lifted up the arm holding the rusty Tetsaiga. The pieces of its obliterated sheath hovered into the air and went back to their place around the sword. Kagome kept blabbing about how she thought she was a goner or something, but all he cared about was the sword. When the sheath was finished, he heard her say: "Are you listening to me?"

"Lets go," he said gesturing for her to on ride his back. She was probably about to say something angry, but after seeing Inuyasha's face, decided against it. She held onto his shoulders as if she were getting a piggyback ride from her father all those years ago. For some reason, her loving attitude made Inuyasha tense.

"Thank you," she whispered into his ear as the blasted out of the forest. She couldn't tell why, but Inuyasha's face looked like she had just severely hurt his emotions.

"Just point the way," he said, straining to say it as calmly as he could.

~

            Sesshomaru stared at his hand for a very long time.

            "My brother has grown very strong," he said to Jaken. Then he chuckled. "It seems my brother has shown more of himself then he intended to that human."

            "How could you tell?" Naraku's minion asked. Sesshomaru closed the hand into a fist and destroyed Jaken with his poison fist.

            "That is none of your business, Naraku," the demon said, opening his hand in the breeze. The wind greedily blew away the ash in his hand. He turned into a blue light and went to the sky.

~

            Naraku subtly flinched as another one of his vessels was eliminated. _These _dogs_ think too highly of themselves, destroying my minions on a whim._

            "Lord Naraku," another minion said, panting from running all the way through the castle to Naraku's chamber.

            "What is it now?" Naraku said annoyed.

            "The forest god has dissapeared!" it said.

            "What? Who is responsible for this?" Naraku said angrily.

            "Inuyasha, my Lord," it said nervously. It knew what Naraku did when he got mad.

            _Inuyasha? How did a lowly _hanyou_ weild such power? _Even though it was his doing that made the gods his servants, he always intended to get rid of them. How then, did he do what _Lord Naraku _could not? _I must reasses the value I have given Inuyasha among my servants… but one can never be _too_ careful._

            "Get Kagura," he said, and went into deep thought.

~

[Day 4]

            Seeing that Kagome's kimono was hanging by its threads (hehe), he allowed her to go to a village en route to the next shard to buy something more fitting for the task they were undergoing. Surprisingly, she did not make any attempts to run away.

            "How could it take you so long to find a damned dress?" Inuyasha said to Kagome impatiently as she left the shopping square.

            "Well, I also did some shopping. We can't live off wild food the whole time."

            "Lets go," he said, anxious to get the second shard. Kagome stuffed all the things into a backpack-type thing and put it on. Then she mounted him, but didn't intend to go to another shard first.

            "I have a question," she asked timidly.

            "What?"

            "Why did they give me all this stuff so freely? I'm pretty sure none of them know that I'm a princess. Once you spoke to that guy who helped me, the peddlers let me have whatever I want."

            "I have my connections," he said bluntly. "Anything else your _highness_?" he said contemptibly.

            "I heard there's a hot spring somewhere nearby," she said, feeling his dog-ears.

            "What about it?" he said, thinking nothing of it, slapping her hands off.

            "Well, you did say I tasted nasty…"

            "So," he said, picking up pace.

            "Well, I thought that maybe I could take a bath there," she said.

            "What?" he said, coming to a sharp halt. He set her in front of him so she could see his angry look.

            "You could go too, after I'm done of course,"

            "We don't have time for this,"

            "We still have ten days, one day couldn't hurt," she said, trying to convince him.

            "Well…"

            "It won't even take the whole day, we can go right after we finish. And since it's on the way to the next shard, we wont be wasting time doing it."

            "…alright," he finally agreed.

            "Thank you so much!" she said, jumping up to hug him. He brushed her off and walked to the hot spring. Coincidentally, it seemed that they had stopped right in front of it. Kagome quickly caught up.

            When they arrived, Kagome made Inuyasha wait in the trees while she stripped. She put all of her stuff (backpack and clothing) on a place she cleared and went into the spring, the shard necklace still on. 

            "You can come over here now, but no peeking!" she said. She didn't want him to see her, but she didn't want anyone to steal her clothes. There _are_ some sick people out in the world, and she was not that naïve. Inuyasha walked to his designated spot backwards, concealing the fact that his face was beet red.

            "What're those weird smells?" Inuyasha said after he noticed the exotic and somewhat intoxicating aromas in the air.

            "Bathing oils," she said. "How else would I have my picture perfect beauty?"

            "Then you should be using more of that stuff," he said. He felt something hard hit him in the back of his head. After waiting nearly an hour for Kagome to bathe, his eyes noticed something that was inside Kagome's worn out kimono.

            "What's this?" he asked, taking out an envelope from it. He heard Kagome leaving the spring. He unconsciously turned to look and saw her naked body, glistening from the oil treatment. He dropped the letter and jumped into the nearest tree, his face blushing wildly.

            "It's a letter from a friend," she said, drying herself off.

            "Why do you still have it?" he asked, staring in the opposite direction.

            "It was the last letter I ever got from him," she said.

            "Was he close to you?"

            "We knew each other since we were kids," she said, sounding nostalgic. "We really liked each other. We were separated as we got older, but we kept in touch," she continued, sounding depressed. "But this was the last letter I ever got from him."

            "Oh," Inuyasha said gloomily. Kagome changed and barked for Inuyasha to check her out.

            "So, how do I look," she said, suddenly cheerful.

            "You shoulda used more oil," he said dryly. His face was nearly impaled by a branch.

            "You don't go out and say things like that to a Lady!" Kagome said, enraged. She threw more stuff at him.

            "Whatever," he said, jumping into the spring. "I'm going in." He cannonballed and almost got Kagome soaked. He spent a few minutes scrubbing himself and then he jumped out. Then he shook his body doggy-style to dry himself. When he was done, he was met by Kagome's glare. Kagome's wet glare. She screamed at him, enraged and beat him up.

~

            "Isn't this nice," Kagome said as the three munched on their picnic.

            "It would be if _someone_ didn't try to make a hole in my head," Inuyasha said angrily, feeling the gauze on his head again.

            "I said I was sorry," Kagome said again.

            "Whatever," Inuyasha said. After the bathing incident, things had gotten awkward for Inuyasha. He was trying to hide it by starting the search for the next shard, but Kagome insisted that they have a picnic before they head out. So there was Inuyasha. Having a picnic. Precious seconds ticking away until his mission was out of time.

            "Can we leave already?" Inuyasha finally said nervously. He had been twitching the whole time, anxious to get moving.

            "What's the hurry?" Kagome said, enjoying the sunny day.

            "We have to get the jewel to the temple in ten days, and we've only collected one of the shards," he said, becoming more impatient.

            "Why do you care if it gets there? Its not as if its _your_ kingdom at stake."

            "I have my orders," he said quickly.

            "Why do you want to get it so badly?" Kagome said.

            "Because master Na-, my master wants me to get it for him."

            "Okay, but why do _you_ want it so badly. I don't think anyone could be so into following their orders if they didn't have a stake in it," Kagome said.

            "Yes, master Inuyasha, I too would like to know," Myoga said after finishing some fruit juice.

            "…Because," Inuyasha started, looking at Kagome's eyes, "…because…" he looked away to the Sakura tree nearby, "its none of your business anyhow. Just shut up and get ready to leave," he said and stormed off to the tree. He jumped onto one of the branches and eyed Kagome from there, patiently watching like a panther stalking its prey.

            "What's up with him?" Kagome asked Myoga. Then she slapped him off of her shoulder.

            "I don't really know. Master Inuyasha has been acting very strange since his mission started," said Myoga

            "What mission?"

            "The one his master gave him," Myoga said.

            "And who is his master?" Kagome pushed.

            "Lord Naraku," he replied. Kagome looked at him in shock. Then she looked at Inuyasha, who replied with a cold stare from his perch on the tree.

~

            There was very little conversation on the way to the next shard. Kagome had hoped to charm or at least have befriended Inuyasha by now and be heading back home, but her manipulations did not fare well. The incident at the spring, her illusion of suffering because of her long lost friend (though not completely false) and the picnic just seemed to make Inuyasha even colder to her. As they scaled the mountains, she could feel that Inuyasha's muscles were tense. There was something wrong with him, but she didn't know what.

            There was also the matter of Naraku. Was Myoga lying? Was Inuyasha really following the orders of prince Naraku? The same person that seemed to enjoy the beauty and fragility of nature as she did? The same, handsome man who had conversed with her so easily on the way to the temple, where the jewel was to allegedly stop a certain plague from ruining the country? There was always that eerie feeling she had when she first met Naraku…

            She was also worried about what Inuyasha and that 'god' were talking about. What could they possibly talk about that would pertain to her. All she was to Inuyasha was a shard locator, right?

            It was all too much. Between trying to find a way home and deciding if Naraku was really a bad guy, Kagome could only think about it later. Right now she had to focus on breathing; the high altitude of the mountain was starting to get to her. Inuyasha and Myoga were seemingly unaffected.

            "Can I just wait for you at the base?" she asked Inuyasha between deep breaths. "You can leave Myoga there to watch over me." Inuyasha stopped climbing.

            "I can't leave you behind, Kagome. I need you," he said, with a certain genuineness that made her blush. Maybe she could- "Otherwise there would be no one to purify the corrupted shards and seal away the demon within the gods." Her hopes sank down the Sea of Japan. There was no way he would let her leave if that was true. _How did I end up in this mess again?_

            He started scaling the mountain until he reached a flat clearing somewhere near the top. Snow was actually falling down here (they were in one of feudal Japan's hottest summers), but Inuyasha finally found the temple. He made a mad dash into it and slammed the door shut behind him.

            "This is the _most_ convenient place for them to make a temple…" Inuyasha started.

            "Who are they?" Myoga asked.

            "You know, them," Inuyasha said. Myoga gave him a blank look. "You know, those people that built this place." He seemed to have no idea about what he was talking about.

            "Yoohoo, anybody in here?" Kagome said, walking cautiously behind Inuyasha. She was answered by the eerie silence, broken only by the howling of the wind from outside.

            "Do you know anything about this place, Myoga?" Kagome asked the flea.

            "Yes. This is a famous shrine located on top of mount Fuji. The shrine was known to have emanated a glowing aura that had control of the seasons in this particular region."

            "It also had the power to control the winds…" a cold voice muttered. Inuyasha was holding Kagome behind him instantly.

            "Who's there? Show yourself!" he barked.

            "Well, well… if it isn't Lord Inuyasha…" the voice said from a dark corner. Slowly, the figure walked towards the group; everything it touched froze, including the air which was forming a mist around it. Kagome's mind flashed back to the forest temple and the statue of the earth type god. _Is there some kind of connection?_ She thought.

            Before she could voice her thoughts, the creature jumped to Inuyasha who slashed the demon-form of Tetsaiga at it. He made contact, but the tip of Tetsaiga was frozen. _Dammit_ Inuyasha thought. "Kagome, stay back!" he ordered as the god launched itself again. Inuyasha blocked, but his sheild took the hit, freezing the diamond embedded in Tetsaiga; there was a thin bubble of frost surrounding Inuyasha that instantly shattered as the god broke contact.

            "I see that you have gotten stronger since we last met," it said mockingly.

            "Shutup you bastard!" Inuyasha barked. Inuyasha quickly shifted his eyes between the god and Kagome. Realizing what he was trying to do, Kagome searched the being for the presence of the shard, and found that it was embedded between its eyes. "Its between the eyes!" she siad, just as the being lunged at Inuyasha once again. Inuyasha knew that if he even made the slightest contact, his sword would be done for, so he stabbed the floor, kneeling.

            "Ho ho hoo, do you admit defeat?" the being cackled.

            "No, just getting ready to kill you," he said in a cocky fashion. Bright yellow bolts surged from Tetsaiga and stabbed at the ice monster.

            "Ahh!" it shrieked as the Shikon Jewel shard was being assaulted. In punched through the wall and ran outside, burying its head in the snow. The icy wind greedily stormed into the room, covering everything with snow. They would all be dead in a few minutes.

            "Inuyasha!" Kagome cried as a strong gust threw her out of the temple.

            "Inuyasha-dono," Myoga said from his shoulder, "Kagome is in trouble!"

            "But you never seem to be…" he said under his breath. He lept outside to try and catch Kagome, but to his horror, the ice god already had her. He stood there wide-eyed, staring at the Kagome-sickle that the god held in an intimate embrace.

            "Inuyash…" Kagome thought as she went unconcious.

            "You bastard…" Inuyasha cried, clenching his hands into fists.

~

            Hundreds of feet below the feirce battle, a lone figure tried to climb the very same mountain. As he reached towards a foothold, the foothold he was alread on crumbled and he was hanging with one arm. He frantically tried to put his other hand on the handhold, and scarmbled up from his death to a ledge.

            "Man these hills are trecherous!" Prince Hojo said as he sat down to catch his breath. He had spent a long time doing it, but he finally tracked down Princess Kagome. He took a jewel out of his pocket and held it by a golden string that was affixed to it. As if sensing that Hojo was looking for the Princess again, the jewel glowed and an arrow pointed towards the summit. Hojo frowned, knowing that even if he checked again, it would still point the same way. Before he restarted his treck, he took something out of his backpack. He smiled as he pulled out at root of some plant. _Its good for your health…_ Hojo repeated to himself, trying to down the bitter herb.

~

Is Kagome dead?

More importantly, is Hojo Kagome's brother?

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	4. Chapter Four: Message

Until The Day I Die

Chapter Four: Message

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters.

~

_My beautiful Lady Kagome,_

_            I'm so sorry for the delay. It's been so long since I've had time to write since I've join the Imperial Guard. I never knew why I've been trained in the arts of war for so long, but now I do. It seems that I was born to be a soldier. But don't worry; when my training is over, I'll be your personal guardian._

            I'm so happy that soon, we'll be able to see each other face to face once again. Even though we've been writing to each other since I can remember, it's not the same as actually being with you.

_            My first duty will be to resist an enemy invasion that will be passing through my village. Fear not for my safety, my love, the commander says that they are barbarians that will be easily defeated._

_            My Master also says that I will be on Palace duty in three weeks, and if I can improve quickly enough, I will actually be by your side within three months._

_            I know that I'm not the most honorable man in the kingdom, and my name has no title, but… I know that since the first day I've met you, I have loved you. And by joining the ranks, I hope that I can prove my worth to you. I know that we have both felt this way towards each other for some time now, but I wanted to say it incase I never get too… We may have changed over the years, but I know that my love for you has not._

_            Well, I'm sorry but it seems that the invaders have come in more quickly then we expected. A messenger had just arrived and told us that they have already entered our borders, so we must immediately start preparing. I'm sorry I didn't get to write any further about what more has happened to me, but I don't have any more time. So until next time, farwell._

Your Dear and True Friend, Tamago 

~

            Inuyasha stood there, fearing the worst. _There is no way that anyone could have survived that…_

            "Oh, did I fluster the Hanyou?" the evil god taunted.

            "I'll never forgive you…" Inuyasha said. _How could I fail Kagome?_

            "What? What was that? I couldn't hear you."

            "Bastard, I'll kill you!" Inuyasha said, leaping at him. He was angry beyond explanation, and he attacked the demon in a headstrong manner.

            The demon threw Kagome's icy casket away like trash and moved to counter Inuyasha. Inuyasha slashed at him with all his fury, and severed his enemy's arm off. He landed, satisfied when he heard the muffled thump of the fallen arm.

            "You… you'll pay for that!" the monster said, lunging at him. Inuyasha sidestepped left, missing the god's ice grip by mere millimeters. He could feel the air freeze before him. He landed, almost tripping as his muscles started succumbing to the cold. He moved to jump, but found himself right where he started. He tried again, but saw he couldn't move. He looked at his feet, and to his horror, his legs had ice all over them. The Fire Rat's robe was completely frozen and the severed arm was clinging to it. Slowly, he could feel his legs numb.

            Inuyasha looked at the ice god and saw an evil smirk on his face. When the ice god saw the desperation in Inuyasha's eyes, he started a hysterical laughter as he inched forward.

            His sword completely frozen, his legs immobile and his shard-finder presumed dead, Inuyasha felt that there was only one thing he could do. He threw his sword away, which went into its non-demon form as it stabbed the ground. He stood up to his full height and seemed ready to do a final move.

            "_ENTEI_!!!" Inuyasha screamed into the sky at the top of his lungs.

~

            Hojo slowly inched towards the ledge. Finding a foothold that seemed sturdy, he finally climbed up to it, and presumed safety. He saw that he was on a platform that was about five to ten feet from another platform that led to what seemed like a trail that would lead to the summit. He walked to the edge of the platform away from the other and made a running leap to the other. Just as he was about to touch off, he noticed a large white flash go off from the summit. As he was in the middle of the jump, a strong shockwave pushed him backwards, making him lose his momentum and fall down, right between the platforms.

            "Ahh!" he screamed as he fell. The wide thrashing of his arms and legs gave him spin, and a jutting rock hit him on his shoulder, causing him to go into an uncontrollable tumble.

~

            _Am I dead? Is this what being dead feels like?_ Kagome thought. Her body shivered. _It's so cold… I never thought death was like this. I thought I would see God or something when I died._

            She blinked as vapor washed over their face. When her vision cleared up, Kagome saw that she was surrounded by a bright violet aura. The ice capsule she was contained in was vaporizing and the vapors made the ice shell explode. She looked at herself and realized that something within her had saved her from the ice.

            But what she saw around herself was nothing like she expected. The whole mountaintop was charred, as if had been burned to the ground. The ice god was lying on the ground face up. The shard of Shikon Jewel was lying next to it; Inuyasha lay beside him, trying to stand up.

            "Inuyasha!" Kagome cried, running towards him with an open embrace. When she reached him, she gave him a strong hug and buried her face in his chest.

            "Kagome…" Inuyasha breathed into her ear, snaking an arm around her waist.

            "Inuyasha, I thought I was dead!" she said, crying hysterically.

            "So did I," Inuyasha said, utterly confused about what happened. He tensed up, moving Kagome aside to protect her, when he saw the ice god standing beside him. It moved about lifelessly, as if its soul had been taken out. He noticed Kagome looking past it and followed her gaze. There it was, the shard of the Shikon Jewel, corrupt to pitch-black. Realizing that the monster before him was harmless, he did his iron reaver on it and it disintegrated. All that was left was a gray rock. Inuyasha gave it a kick and it glowed; slowly, something brilliant came out and materialized before him.

            "Brilliant idea, Master Inuyasha," the earth god said, putting an arm on his shoulder. Inuyasha simply ignored her.

            "Kagome, you have to purify the shard before it does anything more," Inuyasha ordered.

            "Hai," she said and scampered up to the shard, placing it in her hands and ridding it of evil.

            "That girl is amazing," the god said to Inuyasha, getting the message. She handed him another white diamond.

            "It's the only reason she was chosen," he quickly replied. The god started floating into the air as she said her final words.

            "Let the Diamond of the wind help vanquish your enemies. The _Kaze no Kizu_ (wind scar thingy) has the power to vanquish one hundred of your opponents at once." With that, she disappeared into the wind.

            As the two went down the mountain, Kagome told Inuyasha about the letter that she had been carrying with her (the one he saw in the hot springs). He asked about it and she let him read it.

            "Isn't it weird?" she asked while he read. He was trying to contain his laughter at the crap he was reading. "Why would I remember that letter while I was in the ice capsule?"

            "Maybe it's a sign," Inuyasha said trying to calm his laughter.

            "What do you mean?"

            "You said that you haven't seen this guy in so long, maybe you're gonna see him soon?" he said with a straight face.

            "Yeah, that is true. Maybe he's just been in a war in another country or something and he's coming back!" Kagome said excitedly, overjoyed at the thought of seeing her long lost friend once again.

            Inuyasha held a faint smile on his lips as he saw Kagome go down the hill with a higher step.

~

[Day 6]

            Inuyasha was running at top speed with Kagome on him piggyback style. They were heading towards the Firelands where the fire god resided. As he sped through the forest, Kagome made course corrections to account for the maneuvering he had to do to avoid the trees. By the end of the day, they were out of the forest and heading to the edge of a village.

            "Hey, I know this place," Kagome said.

            "So?"

            "This is my friend's village. Maybe I can find out what happened to him if I ask around," she said.

            "We don't have time for this!" Inuyasha said angrily as he entered the town, blowing dust a few feet into the air.

            "Please?" Kagome said in her best voice.

            "No," Inuyasha said. Kagome sensed she was getting to him; time to use the trump card.

            "I wont help you find the shards anymore," she threatened; this got his attention. He suddenly stopped, nearly flinging Kagome in front of him.

            "Bitch, this better not take too long," Inuyasha said, too tired to handle her bullshit; he did just fight a god, you know.

            "Thank you so much Inuyasha!" Kagome said, hugging him.

"You have till tomorrow morning," Inuyasha said sternly. Kagome could tell he meant it, even if she used the same threat again.

Trying to remember the layout of the village, Kagome tried to make her way to her friend's estate. After a few mistakes, she finally found it. She all but ran to the door and knocked it furiously.

"I be coming!" someone said from inside. Kagome knew that voice. The door opened, but Inuyasha stood in front of her.

"We're looking for a Tamago," Inuaysha said, glaring daggers at the lady who answered.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome scolded. "Aunty Kaede, its me, Kagome," she said, shoving Inuyasha aside.

"Kagome!" the lady exclaimed. "It's been long since I've seen ye. Ye have grown much taller and beautiful," she smiled.

"It has, hasn't it?" Kagome replied, her face softening.

"Come in, come in! Ye seem like ye have been traveling for days," she said, moving inside.

"Actually, we have," Kagome said.

"My, my. The princess is roughing it," the lady teased.

            Kagome and Kaede sat on the ground while Inuyasha was sleeping on a tree outside. Obviously, Kagome was interrogating her about what happened to her friend.

            "So, where is he?"

            "Who?"

            "TAMAGO!" she said a bit too loudly.

            "Oh," she said gloomily. Kagome knew there was something wrong. "It'll be easier for ye to understand if ye see it," she said, getting up.

            "Why? What's wrong?" she asked as they left the house.

            "Ye know that Tamago was part of the Imperial Guard when the barbarians invaded, correct?"

            "Yeah, that was the last thing he wrote to me about," she replied. They could barely see in front of them, but the torch lady Kaede had suddenly seemed to get brighter when they stopped walking. Kagome looked in front of them and what she saw almost broke her heart.

            There was her friend's house, burned down.

            "The invaders were stronger then we thought; they destroyed our defenders. He was trying to distract them while we got away. He was fighting them from inside, trying to stall as long as possible. We've never heard from him since. We just assumed the worst."

            Kagome just stood there, staring, tears running down her cheeks. He was really gone.

~

            Hojo could not believe his luck. He woke up on the shore of a lake near mount Fuji, covered in leaves. He probably had some of his energy taken by some trees that broke his fall, so when he landed on the lake he didn't get smashed on its surface.

            He took out the jewel and waited for it to track the Princess; it didn't react. He thought back to just before he fell and remembered the large explosion he saw from the top of the mountain, and realized that could only mean one thing; the Princess was dead.

~

            Inuyasha had decided that it was too cold to sleep outside, so he found a place inside the house that was comfortable. He held Tetsaiga in his arms and started to drift to sleep when the- Princess came in, crying like a royal pain-in-the-ass.

            "Quiet down dammit!" he said, not moving.

            "Shut up!" Kagome screamed at him and went to the guest room.

            "Inuyasha, ye must learn how to speak around women," lady Kaede warned. 

"Naraku has eyes everywhere," he replied simply, grabbing her hand. As if realizing the importance of that information, the lady left him alone and went to comfort the Princess.

"I really thought that he'd still be alive," Kagome said, trying to calm down.

"Ye don't know for sure that he is gone," Kaede said, hugging the mourning Princess.

"But how could he have survived?" Kagome asked, feeling the welled up tears ready to burst.

"There is something…" Kaede started, but waited for Kagome to calm down.

"What do you mean?" Kagome asked, her tears slowing down. Kaede looked around, as if suspecting a spy.

"Here," she said, handing Kagome a letter. She took it, puzzled over what it said. "I found this after we came back. Some of it is burned, but I haven't read it; it's addressed for ye." Kagome unfolded the letter; it had blood on it and the bottom was burned. She read it.

_My Darling Kagome,_

            The enemy has broken through our lines, but I have saved everyone from my estate. Unfortunately, our favorite house had burned down (I'm watching the fires die as I write this), so I guess we can't raise our kids [blood] right?

_            Something has happened [blood] me. You will never believe me even if I told you. But know this: I am no longer part of the [blood] Guard. I have joined a very elite unit; by the time you read this letter, I will be part of something called the D-Knights; it is so secret that no one in the castle will acknowledge its existence. Most likely as you read this, I will be watching you from a distance. Nothing will stop me from protecting you now, but you will never be able to see me until my mission is over. If I am to protect you properly, my presence must be absolutely secret._

            However much [blood] kills me to do this, this is the only way for me to protect you from [blood] dangerous Hanyou. He [blood] surely kill you if he gets his hands on you. Kagome; things are not as they seem. TRUST NO ONE.

_            When the day comes that we can finally meet each other once again, I hope that you will forgive me for all the trouble that I must be causing you. But know this: Until the day I die, I will gladly spill my heart for you…_

            I will try my best to keep him from hurting you, but if I 

The letter was burned off at that point.

            "Things are not as they seem? Hanyou? D-Knights? What is the meaning of all this?" Kagome said. She thought it was a joke Kaede was playing, but the handwriting was exactly the same as the one from the letter she was carrying.

            "Ye better not tell Inuyasha about this. Ye better not tell anyone," Kaede said in a serious tone.

            _Hanyou… I remember that last god calling Inuyasha a Hanyou…_ Kagome thought. Tired from all the information she just received, Kagome finally succumbed to sleep.

~

            They were off to find the next shard by sunrise. Kagome was sleepy, but Inuyasha was full of energy. As the day wore on, Kagome remembered something.

            "How did you defeat the earth god?" she asked. Inuyasha smirked.

            "My guardian angel," he smirked.

            The next few went by quickly as the two rapidly made their way to the Firelands (Myoga had decided that he would stay there until Inuyasha was done with his mission). As usual, Kagome corrected Inuyasha's heading as they progressed, but that was the only communication between the two.

            Kagome had received more information then she would have liked. There still was the matter of if Inuyasha really was one of Naraku's goons and what Inuyasha was talking about with the forest god. Which brought on a whole other thing: what were these gods? It seemed like they knew her, or at least about her. They treated Inuyasha as if they had some history; they also referred to him as 'master'. If Inuyasha really _was_ someone's goon, why did the gods treat him with such reverence? Kagome couldn't think of anything.

            She also found out that Inuyasha was a Hanyou. Why would he hide that from her? And from what she had heard of about Hanyous, he was an extremely powerful one.

            Finally, the matter of her long lost friend; was he dead or alive? Even with all the time she had to think about all this when they arrived at the lands, she wasn't any more enlightened then when they had left the village. And there was the question about how she felt towards Inuyasha. Sure he was a mean, arrogant, jerk, but she had started to grow fond of him since they started the journey together. If she were to come across her long lost friend, what would she do?

            The Firelands were definitely the right words for the region. There was a great active volcano towards its center. It had expelled so much lava that it seemed like the volcano was merely an island inside a lake of molten rock. Apparently, the trees around the volcano had caught fire burned down the great forest that surrounded it, leaving a desolate, charred country side that was too unforgiving to be able to support any life. As the two got closer to the volcano, Kagome could see statue like creatures and trees, which had the misfortune of being in the forest when the fire had occurred.          

            Of course, this had happened many years ago, and the ashes had long since cooled and been blown away into the wind. The area surrounding the volcano was higher then its base, thereby making the lava collect around its base, instead of spilling into the land the rest of the country; not that it would matter. The volcano was very young, just a few years old; less then a blink of an eye when considering Earth's geological history.

            Inuyasha slowed down as he approached the lava lake. As Kagome unmounted him, she could feel the heat radiating at her. Within minutes she could feel herself sweating.

            "Inuyasha, there is no way we can cross all of this red stuff," Kagome said, referring to the lava. Obviously she never had any experience with it.

            "Where is the shard?" Inuyasha asked, seemingly unworried. Kagome searched for a little but and found a presence in a few seconds.

            "There!" she said, pointing at a large ridge facing the East. On the tip of it was a mud building that was shaped like an igloo. A hole on the top had fire spitting out.

            "Damn, that's high…" Inuyasha said and went into deep thought. He stood there for a little bit until he thought of something. He made a loud, shrill whistle that forced Kagome to cover her ears, her eyes closing with them.

            "What are you doing!" she said angrily. She suddenly felt Inuyasha behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist. Kagome made a small yelp.

            "Don't be afraid…" Inuyasha whispered into her ears.

            "Inuyasha…" Kagome said, her heart suddenly speeding up; he covered her eyes with his free hand. 

"What are you doing!" she demanded. Suddenly she felt his arm around her waist grow tighter; then it started pulling her _up_. In a few seconds, she could tell that she was off the ground, since her feet were dangling.

            "Over there, boy," Inuyasha said to no one, his arm around her waist and hand over her eyes still firm.

            "Inuyasha, what's happening?" Kagome asked. She felt her feet touch the ground. A few seconds after she felt all of her weight on her feet again, Inuyasha released her and started walking. In front of her, Kagome could see the same mud building she saw from the ground. She also realized that it had gotten appreciably hotter.

            "How'd we get here?" Kagome asked, not sure if she was dreaming or not. No one can just go from one place to another like that, can they? Even with Inuyasha's strength, could he really jump that far? Kagome doubted it.

            "Don't matter; we're here, aren't we?" he said as they approached the hut's entrance.

            "But-"

            "Shhh" he hissed, putting his index finger vertical to his lips. Kagome froze next to him, crouching by the entrance.

            'Fee, fie, foe, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!' something bellowed, followed by a weird sounding giggle.

            Kagome signaled to Inuyasha _what's going on?_ He shrugged back. They listened a little bit more.

            'Row, row, row, your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream!' it sang, bursting into laughter when it was done.

            Kagome and Inuyasha both sweat-dropped. Obviously whatever it was, it was childish.

            'Fuck the duck…' it said, paused and started cracking up even more.

            "What the hell is up with this guy?" Inuyasha angrily asked Kagome before she could ask him. As if to answer, the fire flaming from the top of the hut ceased and something started walking out. Inuyasha quickly, but quietly drew Tetsaiga and waited to attack. A few seconds later, a fireball came out of the hut.

            Inuyasha realized he knew what he was looking at. Kagome thought it slightly resembled a human.

            "Telerep you asshole!" Inuyasha suddenly screamed.

            "L-l-lord Inu-Inuyasha!" the being said, almost jumping into the air by the surprise.

            "Didn't you get the message I made Ix'il give everyone?!" he said angrily, shoving Tetsaiga back into its sheath.

            "Um… what's going on?" Kagome asked, confused by this unexpected turn of events. Surely, such a great creature wouldn't bow to Inuyasha, a mere thief? The fireball lessened its flames and took the shape of the fire god she had seen at the temple. He turned to face Kagome and studied her for a little bit.

            "Ah, so this is Lady Kagome…" it said with something on the edge of its voice. "Even though you still wear that ugly red robe, I guess I was wrong; you _do_ have good taste,." Inuyasha was red like a beet.

            "It's not like that," Kagome supplemented, trying to help the poor Hanyou out.

            "Really?" the fire god said, giving Inuyasha a questioning look. He somehow got even redder.

            "Hey Inuyasha, is the heat getting to you? You seem really red," Kagome said.

            "Yeah, _Lord_ Inuyasha," the god teased.

            "Um… don't worry about me wench," he quickly shot. Kagome just snorted at his usual reply.

            "My name isn't wench, you jerk! It's Kagome. Ka-go-me!" she said, stressing the spelling phonetically.

            "Whatever…" Inuyasha said, trying to diffuse the situation. The smile on Telerep's face didn't help. "If you aren't trying to kill me, I can assume the shard didn't corrupt you?"

            "Nope," Telerep said casually.

            "Then where is it?"

            "I have it right here," he said, holding it in his hands. Kagome could tell that it was clean and didn't need to purified. Kagome reached to take it, but Inuyasha held her by the wrist.

            "Are you crazy wench!" he immediately reprimanded.

            "It's Kagome!" she nearly screamed.

            "Fine. Are you crazy Kagome! If you touch it while it's in his hands, you'll just have stumps left," he scolded. Kagome looked at Telerep for a moment. (Text box that says fire god on his left with an arrow pointing to him appears. Text box that's says 'Caution. Hot.' Appears on his left.)

            "Oh," she said, realizing the reason for his concern. _Concern?!_ "Thank you, Inuyasha," she said sincerely.

            "Whatever, we-" he started, but remembered back a few seconds ago when she was about to go nuts. "_Kagome,_" he said bitterly.

            "Inuyasha! There may be hope for you yet!" Kagome said, happily.

            "Whatever, wench," he replied automatically. She smacked him in the back of his head, glowering.

            "Well, here's the thingy I should give you too," Telerep said out of nowhere. He held another diamond in his hand. He placed the shard on top of it and it could be visibly seen loosing its heat.

            "Wow, how did that thing do that?" Kagome asked, taking the shard when it seemed cool enough.

            "Simple, it leeched energy from it," he said handing it to Inuyasha. "It's very effective when you run out of energy, but your enemy seems to still have a lot left."

            "Doesn't it have something else? That hardly seems important for someone with _my_ power," Inuyasha said arrogantly.

            "Of course," Telerep seemed to agree. "It also will let you perform the 'Bakuryuuha,' " he said. Again, Kagome felt out of place among the gods. "And it will _also _let you use the 'Kaze no Kizu' much more rapidly then before."

            Kagome shuddered at the thought. As they were coming from Mount Fuji to here, they had encountered quite a few Youkai that wanted the shards from them. Instead of doing Sankon Tetsusou like he used to, he used the Tetsaiga to do the attack Kaze no Kizu. From what she had seen, it probably could easily kill a hundred Youkai. He could only do it very slowly before. Now, he was surely able to take out whole armies within the span f a few minutes. She didn't even want to think about what this Bakuryuuha could do.

            "Yo, Kagome, lets go," Inuyasha said as Kagome was thinking.

            "Huh?" Kagome said. She looked up and saw Inuyasha bent so she could mount him. She got on and he jumped from the edge of the ridge. Unfortunately, it seemed he hadn't run fast enough; they were headed straight for the lake of lava.

~

I don't write love letters so lay off!

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	5. Chapter Five: True To Your Heart

Until The Day I Die

Chapter Five: True To Your Heart

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters.

I feel so guilty writing this when I should be studying. Curse my urges to write!

I think about it and I hold you

When looking in your eyes I can't believe

I don't need to know the truth

Baby keep it to yourself

I don't wanna know

If you're playing me

Keep it on the low

Cause my heart can't take it anymore

And if you're creeping

Please don't let it show

Oh baby, I don't wanna know

 "I don't want to know" (Mario)

~

            "Tamago! To your left!" a soldier cried. Tamago instantly swung to his left and made contact with a red-eyed wolf demon. Intelligence was completely wrong about the invaders. Though their troop movements were clumsy like barbarians, the invaders weren't barbarians; they were full-fledged demons. So far, they had ravaged all the towns and fortresses they came across and left nothing standing. They had no real logic to their direction, but they were heading in the general direction of the capital. Fighting was fierce everywhere, but the ill prepared soldiers that they came across never survived. Fortunately, the case would not be the same here… at least the general said so.

            The people many, many levels above Tamago had anticipated the horde crossing the village he was in and garrisoned all available troops there. They were also calling in reinforcements, but they would only make it in time if the army there could get the demons to stop advancing.

            So far, things were going as planned and many units had converged with Tamago's; they even had a few samurais among their ranks. Unfortunately, it didn't make the demons any less powerful.

            "Thanks Miroku," Tamago managed to say after slicing the demon in half. Miroku didn't get to reply as a large boulder was headed his way. Fortunately, he hit the deck fast enough for his head to remain on his shoulders. Tamago looked where the rock had come from and saw a gargantuan demon that would easily have been three stories. Immediately, archers above the valley started pummeling it with arrows that were set ablaze. The demon staggered and finally thudded onto the ground, causing a minor quake and flattening some demons that were nearby.

            Tamago and Miroku ran towards another pocket of demons and made short work of them. Being that they were about a meter tall and had no natural weapons, the two gladly took the pseudo break from the intense fight.

            "Miroku and Tamago, fall back!" one of the archers said.

            "Why, Sango?" Miroku asked.

            "The demons have entered the town and we haven't finished evacuating it yet. Besides, we killed all of the demons here." The two looked around and saw that she wasn't lying. The battlefield was littered with corpses, human and demon alike. Apparently, the little demons they slaughtered were trying to retreat. _Oh well,_ Tamago thought, _they'd just end up going after my lady._

            The two made a mad dash back to the town. The archers quickly caught up with them, their bows and arrows abandoned; in an urban setting, there is no such thing as long-range warfare.

            They were greeted by the stench of burning flesh. To the eastern edge of the town, they could see smoke and hear the blood curling scream of someone being torn to shreds.

            "Oh my lord," Miroku said as they neared the battlefield. It had gotten so bad that even the townspeople had to help keep the demons back, not that they were succeeding.

            "Tamago, Miroku, reinforce our flanks with those men!" the commander ordered, not even looking back.

            "Yes Sir!" they said in unison. The two quickly split their ranks and went to each side. Naturally, Miroku included Sango, not that she was in a position to argue or really opposed the idea.

            Tamago had bigger things to worry about. The flank he was covering was down to its last handful of men. Tamago and his carriage quickly assisted, covering those that were already retreating. They took positions behind an abandoned building, waiting for their aggressors.

            _Wait for it,_ Tamago willed those with him. One early reaction and they would lose their advantage. After a few moments, a loud thumping could be heard as something humungous was approaching. After what seemed like an eternity, even Tamago's patience was wearing thin. He was about to peek from the side of the building, but something else got his attention; the building crumbled as something's foot landed on it.

            It was a demon at least seven stories tall. It was humanoid, but had large fangs and blood red eyes. It had a single large horn on its forehead and carried a wooden club.

            Most of the men stood there, paralyzed, while others ran, fleeing like roaches in sunlight. Tamago was among those who stared. He was staring at death; his death. He was staring death straight in the eye. And all death seemed to do was smile at him, as if saying: No, it's not your time yet… but you'll wish it were.

            The thing took another step forward, crushing all those that stood in its way. Tamago broke his trance just in time to make a quick jump to the side and fulfill death's promise; when the foot moved, his comrade's carcasses were dashed over the ground. Tamago turned away and hurled.

            When he felt like he had nothing left to vomit, he searched for the- the _thing_. It was going to pay. It was going to pay dearly.

            He quickly ran up to it and climbed up its back. When he was done with the long climb, he perched on its neck to catch his breath. He looked at the direction the beast was heading, and to his horror, realized it was heading for his estate. He could also see his family still inside it. In a panic, he almost jumped down and ran there to warn them, but though of something better.

            He looked for the men that came with his and acquired their attention. "You," he yelled. "You there. Take all of the men left and evacuate that estate. Yes you! NO! I am not mad. What will I do about this monster? Don't worry, I can handle it." He jumped into the crook of its neck just as the abomination noticed the little flea making all the noise.

            Tamago took out some of his daggers and made short work of the thing's throat. Blood gushed like water from the Niagara. Tamago stabbed the daggers into its chest and fell, holding onto the handles. The result was two lovely gashes going down to the monster's left foot. Tamago ran for cover, sure that the monster would go after him now.

            He hid behind a large sakura tree and waited, but to his surprise, the beast didn't try to attack him. Instead, it gave out an ear splitting moan that shattered some nearby windows. _Guess I don't know my own strength,_ Tamago thought to himself; he was never more wrong.

            The Yokai clutched its head as tightly as it could until its claws drew blood, the moan turning into a scream. For no apparent reason, its skin started to boil and the gashes went on fire. The demon dropped to its knees and fell silent, its carcass engulfed in flame. Tamago was about to move from his hiding spot, but he noticed something dancing in the flames. After a few short moments, he could hear cackling like that of a hyena's. As his eyes adjusted to the flame, he realized that the demon's carcass wasn't on fire; it was covered in fiery demons. Somehow, when he cut the demon open, fire spirits came out of the demon and devoured it. One of the spirits saw Tamago and started after him. Some of the other spirits followed it while the rest went off in another direction.

            To his horror, he realized that they were heading towards his villa, heading towards the very house he planed on living in with Kagome. He also realized there were still people inside.

            In a desperate move, he cut off the spirits going to his house and tried to make them follow him instead. He also shouted for whoever was inside to leave right then. The spirits still moved closer to the house, but Tamago managed to get them to move to the wall farthest from the door the occupants were using to escape. He evaded them as best he could, waiting for some signal that the occupants had all safely escaped.

            After a few intense moments and close calls, he could see his nana Kaede leaving. She glanced back at him, her eyes telling him that everyone had left safely and to be careful. With that, she ran away as fast as she could. It should have made Tamago feel good that everyone had gotten away, but he could read something else in her eyes; she was saying goodbye.

            The fiery things started cackling all of a sudden and made a concerted attack. Half of them jumped at him, causing him to evade, but the other half anticipated his move and had their fangs bearing on him as he was landing. Unable to avoid it, Tamago put his limbs around him to get the least injuries. He fell hard and had two of the things clamped on his arms. He shrieked in agony; he could smell his flesh charring. Before any others could do anything, he ran into the house, bashing the hyenas into the doorframe as he passed it, knocking them off.

            Unable to use his speed to his advantage, Tamago quickly found a hiding spot. But his tactic was a double-edged sword; the hyenas couldn't attack as a group anymore inside the close quarters situation he had forced upon them. Unfortunately, though, he was bleeding on both his arms and it made it easy for them to spot. Furthermore, everything the fiery beasts touched went aflame; if Tamago stayed in there too long, he would die.

            A hyena surprised him from his back and shredded it. Tamago groaned, causing more to come his way. He took out his last pair of daggers and stabbed it in the head. Instantly, it blew away as a purple dust.

            Its brothers found him and cornered him in his bedroom. They snapped at him, but stayed wary of the unsheathed daggers Tamago advertised.

            His bed caught afire.

            Tamago lunged at one, sure that if he stalled any longer he was dead. He made contact and the beast incinerated itself. Unfortunately, its comrade took advantage of the opening Tamago gave it and bit his abdomen. Tamago made a muffled moan, and stabbed it on its forehead. The hyena howled as it dissipated into the smoke filled room.

            Tamago coughed blood. He could feel his lungs filling up. His vision became blurry and he almost tripped. He thrust his arm to the nearest wall to balance himself, but he felt glass. The sudden jerk shattered the window that he accidentally reached for and he fell out of it.

He couldn't see and he couldn't feel anything. He heard a thud and assumed that it was the sound of him falling. He could hear the fire beasts inside the house cackling. He could hear the songbirds chirping above him.

In a few moments they would be on top of him.

He reached into his pouch for something he thought he would never have to use; the "suicide pill," the last ditch effort of a warrior to fight the enemy when he knew he would die. By using up all of the warrior's life's worth of life-force in one battle, the warrior traded god-like power for his life. He swallowed the pill and got up.

He was surrounded by half of the remaining hyenas. There were five, but he was one. They were circling him and lunged at the same time. He stabbed them with his left hand's dagger; his other one was somewhere in his back.

The pill wore off before he could kill the last one. He fell on his back, driving the dagger embedded into it even deeper.

He remembered a lake and a beautiful sunset. He remembered her sitting next to him. 

_I heard this legend once…_

"Kagome…" he said weakly.

When we grow up, we'll get married there… 

He could see her image floating above him, beckoning for him to come back to her. She held her hand out to him and he raised his towards her's.

Remember our promise! 

His eyes became wet as she started going farther and farther away, just when he almost grabbed her hand. _I'm sorry…_ he thought to himself.

His arm fell with a squish; the grass around him was stained red. The hyenas that were circling him went off to find something else to play with; they had no use for a dead man.

~

"Huh?" Kagome said. She looked up and saw Inuyasha bent so she could mount him. She got on and he jumped from the edge of the ridge. Unfortunately, it seemed he hadn't run fast enough; they were headed straight for the lake of lava.

            "AH!" she screamed, willing for them to go farther.

            "Quit your whining wench!" he replied. For some reason, it looked like they were going closer and closer to the shore. Kagome looked around and saw that Inuyasha's robe was spread out as much as he could spread it. _Oh… I get it, _Kagome thought. _He's using the updrafts from the lava to float to the other side!_ Inuyasha wasn't as dumb as he looked.

            Unfortunately, he was off by a little and landed on the hot part of the shore. He ran around for nearly seven miles until he happened to come across a cool pile of ash.

            "Dammit!" he hollered when he saw the burns on his feet.

            "I got it!" Kagome suddenly said and ran into a forest they happened to be near. Within an hour she was back, carrying an assortment of leaves and herbs.

            "Next time tell me when you're gonna scamper off like that! I almost followed you in there!"

            "Well, _sorry_ for finding these burn ointment ingredients," she replied as she started mixing the salve.

            "Ointment? You know about medicines?"

            "When I was younger, I was taught about the herbs and medicines you could find in nature," she said. In half an hour, the salve was done and she applied it to his feet. Surprisingly, his feet were less burned then she remembered them being when she set out to get the ingredients.

            "Its my demon blood. It lets me heal a lot faster then you humans," he explained. Kagome wrapped some rags around his feet so they wouldn't get dirty and they started the hunt for the last shard.

~

            Kagome had never been more embarrassed for someone else before in her life as she had now. Inuyasha and she had finally reached the location of the last shard. It was in a deep lake.

            Inuyasha decided the best way for him to get the shard was to travel to its bottom. Kagome protested, saying that she didn't feel that it was corrupted, but he went in anyway.

            Moments after he jumped in, she met a water being that looked like one of the statues in the forest temple. When it asked her what she was doing there, she told him her whole story, up till when Inuyasha jumped in.

            Kagome realized Inuyasha was taking too long, and the water being jumped in to save him. And there he was, lying on the ground, getting CPR from it. The fact that it was probably a male still got to her.

            "Ugh…" Inuyasha said.

            "Are you alright?" Kagome and the being said at once.

            "K'shief? What are you doing on top of me?" Inuyasha asked.

            "Saving your life," it said, putting its whole body on him and grabbing what it shouldn't.

            "Get off of me you psycho!" Inuyasha said hotly, going redder then he was back at the Fire Lands.

            "Yes master…" it said giddily.

            "I don't even wanna ask," Kagome said after she stopped giggling.

            "Damn it! Go get that damn shard for me. It's too deep. Since you're not trying to kill me, obviously its not corrupted."

            "Which I was saying from the beginning, I might add," Kagome said.

            "Whatever," Inuyasha grunted.

            "All you had to do was ask," K'shief said. It moved its hand up and the shard jumped out of the lake. Kagome took it and sealed it with the rest of the shards.

            "My Lady, could you wait over there for a few moments?" the god said out of the blue. Kagome was about to protest, but remembered all the other encounters and just succumbed.

            As usual, the god gave Inuyasha a diamond. This one was different in that it was red and only enhanced the Tetsaiga instead of giving it a new attack. But it was a very useful enhancement; Inuyasha could now break through barriers.

            Kagome waited by some trees and giggled as the exchange occurred. The god simply wouldn't let go of Inuyasha's hand when he handed the diamond to him. The reaction Inuyasha had was priceless. Kagome knew she would never let Inuyasha live it down.

            _But how? We're done with collecting the shards, _she thought

[Flashback]

"Kagome, wait up!" Inuyasha said. She didn't slow down, she just walked faster. "Kagome."

            "I found the Jewel and 'I was just trying to speed things up,'" she said repeating the hurtful words he said before. "'Its not like I'd want to spend any more time then I'd need to with you.'"

            "Kagome, what are you talking about," he said, and turned her so that she faced him. She was crying.

            "I bet you're glad that you made me cry, aren't you. It seems all you want to do is make me miserable. There, are you happy? Naraku is ten times better then you. At least he treated me nicely. But _you_," she spat the word like venom, "all I am to you is a _thing_ to find the shards, aren't I?" she snapped. 

The two were standing still, Kagome trembling. Inuyasha stood there, absorbing what he just heard. His face showed pain. _Now you know how it feels_. Kagome thought to herself.

"Here," he said, showing her a beautiful diamond. For a brief moment she thought that he was about to say the two words she was wishing so badly to hear. "Obviously you think you can protect yourself. Since you're such a weak human, you can use this if you get hurt. Just stay out of my way."

He wasn't capable of remorse obviously. _I'm sorry_. That's all he had to say. She felt even worse then before.

"Get on," he gestured for her to take a seat on his back.

"Why?"

"Like I said before, 'I'm just trying to speed things up, its not like I'd want to spend any more time then I'd need to with you," he said in a tone so cold, Kagome was starting to fear for her life. She reluctantly climbed his back as quietly cried to herself.

[End flashback]

            "_You know what you want. All you have to do is be true to your heart…_" something hissed into Kagome's ear. She yelped in surprise, turning to see whom it was. There was K'shief, basically breathing down her neck.

            "What are you doing!?" she all but screamed.

            "_Sorry_, but I was just trying to tell you how to waken your latent powers…" it said cryptically.

            "K'shief, what are you doing to my wench!" Inuyasha said, strangling it.

            "Um… nothing. Isn't that correct, Lady Kagome?" the god said with pleading eyes.

            "Yeah. Inuyasha, let go of… him," Kagome said, feeling sorry for it for some reason. Inuyasha eased up and let go of the god.

            "Yeah, yeah, lets get going. Its almost time for us to get back to the Temple of Kings," he said, walking away from the lake.

            _He's so eager…_ Kagome thought as she moved to follow him. Unfortunately, something was holding her back; something wet.

            "K'shief, if you don't let me go, ill get Inuyasha to sick you!"

            "I heard that!" Inuyasha said.

            "Remember what I told you, My Lady. It is the only way you will be able to save the one you love," it said cryptically.

            "What do you mean 'the one I love'?" Kagome demanded. Unfortunately, he melted into the lake, laughing cynically as if he just pulled something on her.

~

Hojo had finally made it back to his kingdom. Unfortunately, he was the bearer of bad news. He reached the castle in a few days and was directed to the Queen. Openly, she didn't express her feelings.

            She called a meeting with the council to be held the day of the planets' alignment.

~

            "Oh that guy gets me so mad!" Kagome whined.

            "K'shief has always creeped me out… But I never would have thought he would try and kiss me!" Inuyasha complained.

            "But he was reviving you," Kagome said.

            "_I_ don't need reviving. He just used that as an excuse to kiss me, I know it!"

            "Well, he didn't go and tell you any weird things at least."

            "What did he say?"

            "…" Kagome was about to say something but changed her mind. She looked at the ground instead. Inuyasha put his face in front of her's.

            "Was it something bad? K'shief gives very good predictions."

            "Hey, you never told me why you know so much about these 'gods,' " she said, trying to change the subject.

            "Alright, I get the message," he said and left her alone.

            _I know what I want. All I have to do is be true to my heart? What did K'shief mean by that?_

            "Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled, and grabbed her by her waist.

            "Huh?" she said, surfacing from her thoughts.

            "Watch where you're walking. I almost lost you again," Inuyasha said, fear in his voice. Kagome looked in front of her and saw a sheer cliff. "Don't scare me like that," he said, wrapping his other arm around her. Kagome turned her head to face him and saw something in his eyes she had only seen in her dreams.

            "Inuyasha…" she whispered as their lips touched. _This is what you meant, wasn't it K'shief?_

~

            "Honorable Lords and Ladies of the council," the Queen said, addressing the assembled council, "I am sure there is much that you would like to know about the events that have recently unfol-"

            "Is it true that Princess Kagome has died?" someone demanded. The assembly started murmuring.

            "As I was saying, that and all of your other questions will be addressed at our meeting in two days. What I called you here today for was to introduce you to somone."

            "And where is this someone?" the same person asked.

            "That's a good question," the Queen answered, but didn't elaborate.

            "Hey you! You can't go in there!" the gaurds outside said. The assemblage could hear two distinct thumps and the chamber doors exploded in a shower of splinters. The Council almost dissapeared into a panic as they saw a white haired being with a green whip enter, but the Queen motioned for them to calm down.

            The red-eyed demon deliberately walked up to the Queen and stopped three feet from her. The Queen smiled.

            "Brash as always," she said.

            "The new guards never cease to amuse me," it said. It kneeled before her, kissed her hand and stood next to her.

            "As I mentioned before, there was someone I wanted to introduce to you. May I present, Master of Intelligence, Lord Sesshomaru."

~

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com


	6. Chapter Six: The Chosen One

Until The Day I Die

Chapter Six: The Chosen One

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters.

Why is it that I seem to dish out good fics during AP tests? What is wrong with me!!!

~

I'm not a perfect person  
As many things I wish I didn't do  
But I continue learning  
I never meant to do those things to you  
And so I have to say before I go  
That I just want you to know

I've found a reason for me  
To change who I used to be  
A reason to start over new  
and the reason is you

I'm sorry that I hurt you  
It's something I must live with everyday  
And all the pain I put you through  
I wish that I could take it all away  
And be the one who catches all your tears  
Thats why i need you to hear

I've found a resaon for me  
To change who I used to be  
A reason to start over new  
and the reason is You

The Reason (Hoobastank)

~

            Hermes could not have asked for a better find. In all his days of grave robbing, he had never encountered the tomb of a king!

            "We'll see who's laughing now, boys," he said to himself bitterly as he sifted through the tomb's treasures. Too long he had been ridiculed as the one who would never make a name for himself. Now he would finally rise to fame, fortune. _And most importantly, women,_ he thought to himself with glee.

            The tomb was enormous. He knew royalty had lavish tombs created for their graves, but who would think it would be _this_ big? (It was an underground cavern as large as Yankee stadium. Go Yankees!!!)

            Hermes thought back to a few moments ago, when he was stalking breakfast. As he closed in for the kill, he stepped into a hole, which dropped him onto a pile of soft stuff nearby. When he collected his wits (and managed to light a torch, which was lying on the ground next to him), lo and behold, he was sitting on top of a mound of rare, imported silks. Upon further inspection of the room, he noticed that the whole place was adorned with jade, sapphire, rubies and jewels. All the streets (yes, it actually had streets in there) were paved with gold and the monuments were built of what seemed to be pure silver. Everything in there glittered, even the coffins.

            There were two coffins, actually. He peeked in and saw that one had the crown of a king and the other of a queen. He happened to look at the north wall and realized that the remains of a large Inu-Yokai were hung as if it were the tomb's guard.

            "Well, one man's grave is another man's treasure," Hermes muttered to himself as he started stuffing some of the valuables into his pouch. As he snagged things, he noticed that there was something out of place. There, atop a pedestal adorned in silk and gold was a crumbling piece of rock. He approached it, wondering what was so important about it. When he was close enough, he could see something unscripted on it in an extremely old language. Fortunately, he had learned much about that kind of writing on his grave digging exploits, and it read something like this:

_            The dark Lord will rise once again from that which I have sealed,_

_            Too soon it will seem that the fate of all will be dealed._

_            The daughter will possess his soul, protecting he whom she holds dear,_

_            The chosen one will protect them all, and vanquish all fear._

_            Truly, he will finally be vanquished, but only by that blade,_

_            The Master of all swords that I gave to the King, the one of White Jade._

            "What a bunch of rubbish," Hermes said to himself.

            "_Leave…_" a deep voice boomed. Hermes dropped everything.

            "Who said that?" Hermes demanded, frantically looking around for the speaker. "Its Jimmy, isn't it? Haha, very funny, now come out!"

            "_LEAVE!_" the voice ordered once again. Hermes realized where it had come from. He turned to the north wall and saw the Inu-Yokai's remains once again. But this time, he screamed; its eyes were on fire.

            "**_LEAVE!!!_**" it said again, the fires exploding.

            "Yes boss," Hermes said in a tiny voice and ran away faster then a cheetah.

            "I still got it," the voice said when the intruder was gone. The fires died down, and who else jumped out of the demon's skull except… Myoga!

~

"Watch where you're walking. I almost lost you again," Inuyasha said, fear evident in his voice. Kagome looked in front of her and saw a sheer cliff. "Don't scare me like that," he said, wrapping his other arm around her. Kagome turned her head to face him and saw something in his eyes she had only seen in her dreams.

            "Inuyasha…" she whispered as their lips touched. _This is what you meant, wasn't it K'shief? _Kagome was never as happy in her entire life as she was right now. The only time when she ever felt that happy was when she thought of Tamago… Inuyasha suddenly pulled away, as if sensing her thoughts.

            "Inuyasha?" she questioned. He turned her around so that they were facing each other, and gave her a hug, resting his head on her shoulder. She returned the hug, oblivious to what was going on in his mind.

            "Because of the way I've been treating you this whole time, you probably won't believe me when I say this," he whispered into her ear, "but… it's been fun seeing you again." 

            "Inuyasha, what are you talking about?" Kagome said, surprised by this sudden confession. She suddenly felt an overwhelming presence.

            "Unhand that maiden, evil demon!" a familiar voice commanded. Kagome looked past Inuyasha's shoulders to see someone she didn't expect. Inuyasha calmly let go of her and stood before her, going into an offensive stance.

            "Bastard, who do you think you are to command _me_?"

            "I am Prince Naraku and I have come forth to save the beautiful princess from your clutches!" Naraku boomed.

            "Come and try me!" Inuyasha said in his usually cocky attitude. Naraku leaped forward and attacked Inuyasha with his jewel-encrusted sword. Inuyasha blocked with Tetsaiga using his lightning-fast reflexes. Unfortunately, he was struck down with Naraku's superior force and fell off of the cliff.

            "Inuyasha!" Kagome shrieked, just reacting to what was going around her.

            "Come Princess Kagome, time is running out. We have quite some distance to travel to make it to the Temple of Kings in the short time which we have until the planets align," Naraku said. He whistled and a horse came.

            "But," Kagome started, too confused to act. She wanted to stay and see if she could help Inuyasha, but some outside force was prodding her to follow Naraku.

            "We have to go Princess," he said. Another deeper, eviler, voice echoed what he said in her head. "Now." She submitted, walking towards him, trying to remember why she wanted to stay in the first place. He lifted her onto his horse once she came up to him. "You must think of your duty Princess Kagome," he said softly. "Many lives ride on your actions."

            "That's right…" Kagome said, thinking back to when all of this started.

[Flashback]

"This is known as the Shikon Jewel. It is said that the Jewel holds great power within it," the Queen said, then darkly "…among other things. It is one of our kingdom's biggest secrets and is never taken out except for certain days."

            "But what does that have to do with me?" Kagome asked.

            "In two weeks," the Queen continued, "all the planets and our moon will be aligned. 'If the jewel is not in its mount within the Temple of Kings, great misfortune will befall our land,'" the Queen said ominously, as if quoting a prophet.

[End flashback]

            Before Kagome knew it, she and Prince Naraku were galloping past the land at the horse's fastest pace. Along the way, Naraku swapped horses so that they wouldn't be riding an exhausted horse the whole way. By dawn of the next day, Kagome could see the temple off in the distance. For some reason, she could tell that Naraku had become disturbed or anxious sometime the day before, but he didn't comment about it.

~

            "Bravo, bravo Inuyasha," someone clapped. "I never thought you could have survived that kind of fall," Kagura said to Inuyasha. They were back on the edge of the cliff where Inuyasha 'lost' Kagome to Naraku.

            "Kagura, I'm insulted. After seeing the kind of fighting I did against the gods and other pesky demons I've fought along the way, I thought you would have given me more credit," he sneered.

            "I don't know what you're talking about."

            "Don't give me that. I know Naraku has had you tailing me this whole time," he snarled.

            "You caught me," she said, expressing dismay. "But I never did get to see you fight these 'gods' you speak of. There was a barrier blocking the view."

            "That's right," he said, slapping himself on the head. "I had almost completely forgotten about that barrier."

            "You knew about it? Why didn't you tell us?" she demanded.

            "Because," Inuyasha said with a thin smile on his lips. Faster than the eye can follow, he was behind Kagura with a dagger across her neck.

            "Inuyasha, what are you doing!? If you don't let me go Naraku will surely kill you! Anything you do to me will come back to him."

            "See, that's where you're wrong. Naraku can't see a thing that you can," he said, his smile stretching. "Since I noticed you I've put up a barrier. Right now he thinks that a wolf Yokai has just mangled you."

            "Since when could you make barriers?" she asked surprised. "Naraku didn't say you were that powerful!"

            "Oh that's simple. Ever since I made those ones protecting the gods."

            "Why are you telling me all this? Aren't you going to kill me?"

            "I'm waiting for you to ask the million dollar question," he said darkly.

            "Which would be?"

            "How could I possibly scale that cliff so quickly?"

            "… you couldn't…"

            "Bingo," Inuyasha said and made one quick movement with his hand. _My way is way cooler then you and your dumb feather's._

~

            Simply put, the world was going mad! Farleigh thought he was going to die, but not a few minutes ago. There he was, on his way to the Chamber when suddenly some… person came barging into the Hall. The interaction went something like this:

            Farleigh walked with ump in his step on his way to the Chamber. The Queen was finally going to address the many questions the Council had about the abduction of Princess Kagome and the future of the kingdom.

            As he drew closer to the Chamber, he heard a commotion come from behind him. 

"Hey you! You can't go in there!" a guard behind him yelled. He turned back to rebuke the guard for the insult of confusing him for a commoner, but realized that he wasn't being addressed. His eyes went wide open as he saw a man draped in white garments incapacitate each guard in his path. Within moments, he was standing in front of Farleigh, who was frozen with fear.

The man simply stared at Farleigh, as if waiting for some kind of response.

"Please don't hurt me…" he finally managed to say, almost soiling himself. The man's cold, piercing gold eyes lit up as he gave a maniacal laugh. He walked past Farleigh, still chuckling and simply annihilated the Chamber door. He walked through it and said: "The new guards never cease to amuse me," obviously referring to him.

When he realized that he was in no danger, he rushed into the Chamber, dreading that the man had done something to the Queen. Fortunately (at best), the man was actually kissing her hand. Farleigh calmed down, sure that he was loyal to the Queen. But he was perturbed; why was he never told about him. Then again, he wasn't told about Naraku or this son she mentioned. He was tired of being out of the loop. He took a seat behind the council.

"As I mentioned before," the Queen said after he stood next to her, "there was someone I wanted to introduce to you. May I present, Master of Intelligence, Lord Sesshomaru."

"Master of Intelligence?" one of the councilmen started. "I thought Sir Hermes was the overseer of intelligence."

"That is true, noble Councilman, but I head a black ops division know as the D-Knights," Sesshomaru said.

"D-Nights? As in the group who annihilated the demon horde some years ago?"

"Yes, that is exactly what he is talking about," the Queen said.

"But we were told that the D-Knights were a division of the military," another councilman said.

"That is how secret our organization is," Sesshomaru said. "We couldn't even disclose our true existence to even the Council."

"Then who knows about it?"

"The Queen, myself, a few of the Councilmen and those already in our organization."

"Exactly how many people are in your organization? And who?"

"I'm sorry, but I cannot disclose that kind of information. I can say, though, that the missions that we undertake have less then a 40% survival rate, which is why I must emphasize secrecy of anything that you hear today. Our lives may depend on everyone keeping whatever happens today, in this room." The Chamber was filled with an eerie silence. A councilman got the courage to speak up.

"Well then, what do you want us to do?" The room was filled with sounds of assent.

"First of all, the Council must first be informed of how our present kingdom was formed." Sesshomaru said.

"What does a millennia old story have anything to do with what the D-Knights are doing?"

"Nothing," the Queen replied. "The story he's talking about was from when the former kingdom was merged with the Western Lands."

"When you became Queen," one of the councilmen said, making the connection.

"Precisely. As you all know, my bloodline is of a different lineage then that of those who ruled before me. I took over for the former king and united the Western Lands and this kingdom."

"And everything surrounding that has been shrouded. Will you finally disclose how it all happened?"

"Yes. The first thing that I must say is that Kagome isn't my daughter." The crowd made a collective gasp. "But she still is a princess because she is the former King's daughter. I however, had a son, who is known by many as Tamago."

"Then how did our kingdoms merge?"

"That's where all the problems start," she said, putting a hand to her head. "The day that Kagome and my son's marriage was arranged, my former husband, and the old king and queen were murdered by a creature known as Naraku."

"Are you referring to Prince Naraku?"

"Yes, but he is no prince. He is a creature that was fabled to destroy the world. We thought that the legends meant for us to stop him, but it seems that it was our children's duty, not ours."

"What do you mean?"

"The day we arranged our children's marriage, Naraku escaped from a seal he was put under many millennia ago. He attacked us, thinking that our children were with us. My husband valiantly fought with him, and succeeded in sealing him again. Unfortunately, it seems that Naraku had somehow taken the place of our neighbor's son, something that I had just recently found out. He also managed to kill the former king and queen before my husband sealed him. My husband died from using up all of his energy trying to seal him."

"How is it that _your_ husband was able to fight this Naraku, but ours seemed to be helpless?"

"Its simple. My husband was the _Demon_ Lord of the Western Lands." The room became excited with energy with this revelation.

"You mean… your son is a Hanyou!?" someone managed to say over the noise.

"Yes," she said. All eyes turned to Sesshomaru.

"You think that _I'm_ a hanyou?" he said in disgust, cracking his knuckles.

"Sesshomaru is my step-son. My husband had him with one of his subjects," the Queen said, as to make everyone not think that he was a hanyou and simultaneously save them from his wrath of such thoughts. A collective sigh could be heard from the whole group. There was no way in heaven that the king could be a demon. A hanyou was okay, but a demon was impossible.

"That was informative, your majesty," one of the more hot-headed councilmen said, "but what was the point of this early discussion?"

"Well, presently, Naraku has possession of the Princess and means to remove the seal placed upon him. However, we have managed to manipulate his movements so that he will deliver the Princess to exactly where she needs to be to get rid of Naraku permanently. The problem is, the legend says that he may only be killed by the Chosen One, and only by using the Master Sword."

"The sword of the first king?"

"Yes, that sword," Sesshomaru said.

"Wait, how do we know he is this 'Chosen One'?"

"Naraku took something from me which I hold most dear," Sesshomaru said. Then he slit the Queen's throat. The room burst with anger at what he had done. He just stared them down as if it were something he did all the time. He drew out a sword and slashed the Queen again. Miraculously, she was untouched.

"As you can see from my son's… demonstration, he has the power to bring the dead back to life."

"And it has been so all the time, except for one case." The Council neednt any more evidence. It seemed obvious to them that the Queen and Sesshomaru had everything planned out and the Council just had to get the ball rolling.

"So you wanted the Council's approval before you took it?"

"As the mandate requires," the Queen said. "And the faster we get this done, the more likely that we will finally get rid of Naraku."

"All in favor…" one of the councilmen said.

"I," they all said in unison.

"There is one more matter," the Queen said before the Coucil lost focus. They all quieted down. "It is conciveable that when Naraku is killed, the nation that he ruled over will retaliate, so I also move for the military to be mobilized for a preemptive strike on his nation."

"I would also like for a unit to be sent with me to handle other matters," Sesshomaru added.

"All in favor?" the Queen said. Not everyone said 'I' (actually, it was the hotheaded guy, but a smack to the back of the head fixed that).

~

[Day of planetary alignment]

            It was quickly approaching sundown and Kagome started feeling anxious. What would happen with the Jewel once the planets aligned? She also had a nagging feeling that she was forgetting about something. It started with an 'I,' she was sure of that.

            "Lady Kagome, its almost time," Naraku said, walking up to her.

            "Yes," she said, and the two walked into the temple, hand in hand. 

The Temple of Kings was a very dark place. Naraku lit a lot of the old candles in the temple, causing strange fumes to go into the air. Kagome coughed.

"Easy there, Princess," Naraku said coldly.

"Sorry," she apologized for no particular reason. Kagome went deeper into the temple and found a pedestal. Naraku had been breathing down her neck the whole time, but he stopped a few feet before the pedestal.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Its okay, just keep on going." Kagome slowly approached the pedestal and pulled the Jewel out. It was glowing intensely, as if eager to be put into its holder. Kagome saw a depression that was probably the Jewel's holder and gently placed it on there, as if giving it too much of a jolt would cause it to shatter. _What was that I just remembered?_ Kagome thought when she saw someone dressed in red in her mind. She dropped it in its nook and moved away to see if anything would happen. She waited for a few minutes, but nothing.

"Don't worry Princess, the planets won't align until a little bit before sundown."

"Oh," she said. "Well, I guess there's nothing left to do but wait."

"Actually, Princess, there is something," Naraku said in a sinister voice.

"And what may that be?" Kagome asked, oblivious of what Naraku was. Naraku seemed to explode; Kagome screamed her lungs out. Unfortunately, all he was doing was showing his true form.

~

            "I hope I'm not too late," Sesshomaru thought as he finally reached the Temple of Kings. His keen demon senses told him that the planetary alignment would happen within a few minutes, and if he didn't kill Naraku, he would completely unseal himself. Be the time he reached the temple, his senses told him that the alignment happened. Within mere moments, the temple disintegrated and blew away with the wind. Sesshomaru saw something that made his mind blow away with it: the ground started rising. Sesshomaru jumped on before he was left behind.

            When he could finally grasp what his senses were telling him, he saw a sick (both meanings) looking demon and the princess strapped, laying on the ground in the middle of a circle with some incantations on them.

            "Sesshomaru, what are you doing here? Didn't I send you off to do an errand to repay me for destroying my minion?"

            "Bastard, do you think I would ever take orders from you?"

            "I see… so _you_ are the chosen one," Naraku said, spitting the word like acid.

            "Yes, and I will destroy you!!!" Sesshomaru said, jumping at him and slashing with his sword. Unfortunately, there was a barrier. The Master Sword simply bounced off of it, causing Sesshomaru to be flung back a few feet. When he got back to his feet, he had to wait a few seconds for the blade to stop oscillating.

            "Bastard, come out of there!" Sesshomaru growled.

            "Know your place, _minion_!" Naraku said and send a wave of miasma at him. Sesshomaru covered his face, but the high concentration of poison burned his skin. Sesshomaru managed to shake the poison off and attacked the barrier again. Again, he was flung back.

            _I don't understand. Why aren't I slitting his throat?_ Sesshomaru thought angrily. Frustrated, he took out his whip and attacked from a distance. The sharp cracks must have woken up the princess, because she suddenly started screaming.

            One would have thought if a person suddenly woke up to find herself strapped to some weird incantation circles, one would scream. One would have thought if a person suddenly woke up and see someone that they knew as a thing made of many demon parts, one would scream. One would have thought if a person suddenly woke up to find herself in the middle of a battle between two non-humans, one would scream. But the aforementioned situations were not what made Kagome scream. It was the bright light in the sky that seemed to come closer and closer. 

            Before the impact, she could distinctly hear someone shout 'Entei' really loudly. After the impact, all that stood was everything inside Naraku's barrier and Sesshomaru who had miraculously survived the attack. Everything else that remained on the rising piece of land was flattened and charred.

            As the fires burned down, Kagome could see something slowly approach from the sky. She could eventually make out a horse-like shape among the fires, which hid the newcomer and Sesshomaru (whom the person had landed next to).

~

            Sesshomaru followed the Princess' gaze and saw the white pinpoint. He knew what it was and didn't think he would ever be on the receiving end of it. Immediately he started chanting the protection incantation. The bright light surrounded him just as he finished the chant and he saw everything go ablaze. From far away it seemed as if a micro-atomic bomb had just exploded.

            In a few seconds, the attacker landed next to him. He was riding on his flying horse, Entei.

            "Tamago… your orders were to protect the Princess from long range. _Not_ assist me on eliminating Naraku." Sesshomaru said accusingly.

            "Well, if I let you fight alone any longer, this operation is over _along_ with your life."

            "_Listen_ to me for once. The only reason we even allowed you to protect the Princess from long range was so we could have our men protecting you. You are too valuable to the humans to die. Don't make me have to order you to leave," he said coldly.

            "How can I stay back when Kagome is in the front lines?" Tamago growled.

            "Listen to reason…"

            "Sesshomaru, my comrade. I have known you since that demon invasion. We've gone through a lot together. _You know me_. And you know I can't leave her," he said soothingly.

            "But your duty…"

            "Sesshomaru. Why are you doing this?"

            "Doing what?"

            "Why are you even wasting your time here? We both know you hate humans. Why are you risking your _life_ for one?"

            "…because. Because of what he did to Rin," Sesshomaru said angrily, clenching his hands.

            "And that is exactly why I can't leave. I couldn't bear for Kagome to share the same fate. Besides-"

            "Fools!" Naraku boomed in a sinister voice. "The hour of this world's doom is at hand. While you two have been wasting your breath, the planets have finally aligned!"

            The fires had died down a lot, so everyone looked at the Jewel. It had risen a few feet from its pedestal. A bright peach light shot up from it and headed in the direction of Mars. In a few moments, it started shaking, calmly at first, but then very violently. It started shaking so much that it exploded, but instead of dispersing like last time, the fragments formed a larger sphere and seemed to turn into a field of light and energy.

            "Now that the Jewel is activating, I have made the Princess take down the seal that has kept me from the Jewel. Now that nothing stand between me and it, I can finally break the seal that has been keeping my powers dormant for so long!" he said and walked towards the Jewel. There was a barrier present, but a move of his hand (and the Princess giving a bloodcurling scream which exhasted her) shattered it. He walked up to the Jewel and put his hand into it, letting him leech off of its energy.

            "Besides," Tamago said, as if nothing were going on around them. "I am the chosen one, not you."

~

Hey, didn't Tamago die last chapter?

Oh yeah, Tamago's back! Will I reveal what happened to him all this time? Or will I be evil and let Naraku win? (don't you get tired of good winning over evil over and over and OVER again???)

Stick around for the final chapter and see!!!

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 

XP


	7. Chapter Seven: Prophecies

Until The Day I Die

Chapter Seven: Prophecies

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters.

            So what? My test is in nine hours. No big deal. Writing stuff will help me release some tension and that's what this whole project was about, right? Anyways, if I start talking Physics, Biology or Calculus, you know why, and don't tell me I didn't warn you!

            Also, I must say that this might be PG13 material, cause of gore and stuff, but I'm not an expert, but I'll give that label anyway.

            Well, it's the final chapter and I hope yall enjoy it. I know I did, since I finished it a few days after my last AP test!

Until the day I die  
I'll spill my heart for you, for you  
Until the day I die  
I'll spill my heart for you

As years go by  
I race the clock with you  
But if you died right now  
You know that I'd die to  
I'd die too

You remind me of the times  
When I knew who I was (I was)  
But still the second hand will catch us  
Like it always does

We'll make the same mistakes  
I'll take the fall for you  
I hope you need this now  
Cause I know I still do

Until the day I die (Until the day I die)  
I'll spill my heart for you  
Until the day I die (Until the day I die)  
I'll spill my heart for you

Should I bite my tongue?  
Until blood soaks my shirt  
We'll never fall apart  
Tell me why this hurts so much  
My hands are at your throat  
And I think I hate you  
But still we'll say, "remember when"  
Just like we always do  
Just like we always do

Until the day I die (Until the day I die)  
I'll spill my heart for you  
Until the day I die (Until the day I die)  
I'll spill my heart for you

Yeah I'd spill my heart!!!  
Yeah I'd spill my heart for you!!!

My hands are at your throat  
And I think I hate you  
We made the same mistakes  
Mistakes like friends do

My hands are at your throat  
And I think I hate you  
We made the same mistakes  
Made the same mistakes

Until the day I die  
I'll spill my heart for you, for you

Until the day I die (Until the day I die)  
I'll spill my heart for you, for you  
Until the day I die (Until the day I die)  
I'll spill my heart for you  
Until the day I die (Until the day I die)  
Until the day I die!!!

Until The Day I Die (Story Of The Year)

            "Now that the Jewel is activating, I have made the Princess take down the seal that has kept me from the Jewel. Now that nothing stand between me and it, I can finally break the seal that has been keeping my powers dormant for so long!" he said and walked towards the Jewel. There was a barrier present, but a move of his hand (and the Princess giving a bloodcurdling scream which exhausted her) shattered it. He walked up to the Jewel and put his hand into it, letting him leech off of its energy.

            "Besides," Tamago said, as if nothing were going on around them. "I am the chosen one, not you."

            "What do you mean? Clearly, what he did to Rin proves so!"

            "Nope," Tamago said.

            "How do you know?"

            "First of all," he said, taking his own sword out. "You've got the wrong sword. See that?" he said, pointing to the Master Sword. "That's silver. Not white like mine. Second of all, Gaea came to me."

            "She came to you? And you never told us?"

            "Yeah, I'm sorry about that," he said. "But she said to keep it a secret. Anywho…" Tamago started to walk towards the barrier.

            "Wait! You expect me to let you do this alone?" Sesshomaru bickered.

            "Yeah. This place is gonna get really hot once I break down that damn barrier. You go back to the rest of the D-Nights and take out those demons coming here from the north."

            "What demons?"

            "I saw them while I was coming down here. Figured I'd save them for you guys to keep you all busy," he smirked.

            "Bastard…" Sesshomaru growled as he slowly started walking, heading north. By this time, Naraku had completely unsealed himself. Instead of being a large mass of demon parts like he was a few minutes ago, he was now humanoid, having two bone rings going over each shoulder and three tentacles coming out from his back (if you've seen after the episode where that mountain explodes, you know what I mean).

            "Hahahaa!" Naraku laughed… menacingly. "It feels good to have my old body back." He shot a burst of miasma on the landmass to extinguish all of the fires. In a few minutes, the smoke and gas cleared and Naraku and Kagome saw Tamago walking all cool toward the barrier, unscathed from the miasma.

            "You?!" Naraku exclaimed when he recognized Tamago's face.

            As the fires burned down, Kagome could see something slowly approach from the sky. She could eventually make out a horse-like shape among the fires, which hid the newcomer and Sesshomaru (whom the person had landed next to).

            And for some strange reason, they just stood there and talked, as if the fires and the evil guy next to her didn't even exist!

            As they talked, Naraku stared at the sky, as if waiting for something to occur.

             "Fools!" Naraku suddenly boomed in a sinister voice. "The hour of this world's doom is at hand. While you two have been wasting your breath, the planets have finally aligned!"

            The fires had died down a lot, so everyone looked at the Jewel. It had risen a few feet from its pedestal. A bright peach light shot up from it and headed in the direction of Mars. In a few moments, it started shaking, calmly at first, but then very violently. It started shaking so much that it exploded, but instead of dispersing like last time, the fragments formed a larger sphere and seemed to turn into a field of light and energy.

            "Now that the Jewel is activating, I have made the Princess take down the seal that has kept me from the Jewel. Now that nothing stand between me and it, I can finally break the seal that has been keeping my powers dormant for so long!" he said and walked towards the Jewel.

            Kagome suddenly felt as if someone were tapping into her heart. The pain suddenly spiked, and she let out a scream as she felt as if someone had torn it out. The pain eventually subsided, but Kagome found herself panting as if she had just ran a couple of miles.

            Kagome looked at the Jewel and saw Naraku extracting energy from it at a rate proportional to the amount of energy present (meaning that dE/dt= kE therefore E[t]= Ce[kt]). During this time (T), Naraku seemed to be metamorphing. The demon parts the stuck out of his slowly converged back into his body. His appearance became more human, but he seemed to be growing a tail. When he was almost complete, instead of being the large mass of demon parts like he was a few minutes ago, he was now humanoid, having two bone rings going over each shoulder and three tentacles coming out from his back. With the last of its energy gone, the shards fell onto the pedestal in a shower of simmering fragments.

            "Hahahaa!" Naraku laughed… menacingly. "It feels good to have my old body back." He shot a burst of miasma on the landmass to extinguish all of the fires. In a few minutes, the smoke and gas cleared and Naraku and Kagome saw Tamago walking all cool toward the barrier and Sesshomaru away from it, both unscathed from the miasma.

            "You?!" Naraku exclaimed when he recognized Tamago's face.

            "Inuyasha?" Kagome said in disbelief. _Didn't I watch you die?_

            "You still go by that pitiful code name, Tamago?" Sesshomaru said as he walked away.

            _Tamago? _Kagome thought. _No, that's not Tamago. Tamago was human._

            "Yeah," Inuyasha said, still walking all cool.

            "You never did tell me how you thought of it," Sesshomaru said to his half brother as he prepared to jump off the platform.

            "It was easy, it's my real name," Inuyasha said, taking Tetsaiga out.

            "Heh," Sesshomaru grunted as he jumped off. _Figures he'd get me to call him by his real name somehow_. (Note: Sesshomaru always referred to Inuyasha as Hanyou, half-breed, or half-brother. He rarely called him Tamago, but frequently called him by his codename)

            "You really think that you can stand up to me?" Naraku said, laughing as Inuyasha raised the Tetsaiga above his head. Naraku kept on laughing until he noticed that the sword was turning red. The change was really hard to see, since the sun was almost down and the sky was a bloody red.

            Inuyasha swung down, and cracked the barrier. With another blow, it shattered and started crumbling around the place where he made a hole. Naraku could only gape.

            "But… but you're only a hanyou," Naraku burst out. "How could you possibly have such power?"

            "You forget you're a hanyou too?" Inuyasha said, going into an attack stance. He tried his best to draw Naraku away from Kagome.

            "Technicalities, technicalities…" Naraku said, falling for his trick. "Now die!" he said, forming a sword made of his own bones in a few microseconds and swinging at Inuyasha. Inuyasha instinctively held Tetsaiga up, blocking the blow. Naraku pressed down harder and Inuyasha had the hold the sword by its blade to keep it from giving.

            "Pathetic," Naraku said in disgust and jumped into the air, using Inuyasha as a spring. On his way down, he used his powers to make him fall faster and held his blade pointing down so Inuyasha couldn't block. In this matter of deci-seconds, Inuyasha barely managed to dodge. He was a few feet away, on all fours.

            Before he could collect himself, Naraku kicked him in the ribs, sending him a few feet into the air. Naraku jumped up and hit him in the back, causing Inuyasha to fall back down. Inuyasha landed hard on the ground and Naraku landed on top of him with one of his bony rings, causing blood to squirt out of his mouth.

            "Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed. _What is going on here!!! Inuyasha is dead, right?_

            "It seems the Hanyou has fallen and can't get up," Naraku laughed, using Inuyasha's spine as a trampoline.

            "Bastard!" Inuyasha said between jumps and rolled away. He sliced Naraku's shins with Tetsaiga as Naraku came down from his last jump. Naraku fell, caught unawares by the attack. He got up on one knee and said: "seems like you still have some fight left in you," and fired miasma at him.

            Inuyasha jumped away, and swung Tetsaiga again. "Kaze no Kizu!" he yelled, unleashing the wind scar. The attack hit Naraku as he was still jetting out miasma, so he was knocked aside. Kagome started hacking.

            "Crap!" Inuyasha said, realizing Kagome was right in the line of fire. He abandoned Naraku and went to Kagome's side.

            "Dammit, can you breath?" Inuyasha asked desperately. Kagome simply coughed harder.

            _Damn!_ Inuyasha cursed in his head. _I can't believe I got Kagome hurt!_ He held Tetsaiga by its shaft and started looking for one of the diamonds. When he found it, he said a chant and it popped out. In his hand, he held the Sacred Jewel of Life. He gave it to Kagome and told her to try and not move, after he shredded her restraints. She gladly took it, finally able to recognize it through the haze that built up in her head. Immediately, she felt its healing rays.

            In the blink of an eye, he went into a defensive posture as Naraku tried to take advantage of the situation and threw his sword at him. Since he was prepared, Inuyasha harmlessly knocked it aside.

            "Hahahaa!" Naraku laughed as he procured two more swords and attacked Inuyasha with them.

            "Bastard, I'll make you pay for what you did to Kagome!" Inuyasha said, his lust for blood evident.

            "Let's see you try!" Naraku said as he swung both swords in one quick motion. Inuyasha barely block; he managed to put his left hand on Tetsaiga's shaft in time to be able to support it when Naraku would swing on it.

            "I see that you've lost some of your strength when you gave the wench that diamond of yours," Naraku said evilly. Inuyasha only grunted as Naraku put more weight behind his swords, causing him to slowly slide backwards. "I don't suppose that those 'gods' are connected to them in some way, are they?"

            "Yeah they are," Inuyasha smiled. "And they're gonna help me kick your ass."

            "I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but those gods are just shells of their former selves right now. I destroyed their master mellennia before I killed your father," he replies with a thin smile.

            "If I remember correctly, this is the very sword that put you away, right?" Inuyasha replied. Naraku's evil smile turned upside down.

            "You're just a Hanyou," Naraku said angrily, "you are NOTHING!" He raised one of his swords and slashed sideways, opening up Inuyasha's chest cavity. Instantly, he was on his back from the force of Naraku's sword and his lack there of. He started spasming like a fish out of water and blood poured out of him like water from a fountain.

            "Hahahaa!" Naraku laughed evilly. "Is that all the 'chosen one' has to give? Either you have been sadly mistaken about your identity, or Gaea has made a _grave_ error." Inuyasha replied by trying to suck air, but in vain; his lungs were cut and full of blood.

            "It seems the Hanyou has fallen and can't get up," Naraku laughed, using Inuyasha's spine as a trampoline.

             "Bastard!" Inuyasha said between jumps and rolled away. He sliced Naraku's shins with Tetsaiga as Naraku came down from his last jump. Naraku fell, caught unawares by the attack. He got up on one knee and said: "seems like you still have some fight left in you," and fired miasma at him.

            She would have sighed when she saw Inuyasha jump away, but she took a deep breath instead; Kagome's eyes grew in horror when she realized that the miasma also happened to be headed straight for her, causing the aforementioned survival instinct. She also clamped her eyes shut and managed to cover her ears and face just as the miasma swished past her.

            She lucked out in that the miasma wasn't hurting her skin. Her problem was air; she was almost out of it. The air around her seemed to stop moving, so she assumed that it all had blown away and took a deep breath. Her lungs went on fire and she started coughing instantly. She decided that opening her eyes probably wouldn't be a good idea either…

            "Dammit, can you breath?" a familiar voice said next to her. She was about to reply, but it just aggravated her condition. Since Inuyasha was standing next to her, she decided that opening her eyes should be safe. Almost immediately she realized that everything looked wrong, like she was high or something. She saw someone in red extending something towards her. When her vision cleared up a bit, she realized that Inuyasha was handing her one of the diamonds that they had acquired during their travels. She also remembered that the diamond he was holding also happened to be the very one that had healed her leg not too long ago.

            She gladly took it and basked in its healing rays. She felt really sleepy, and the last thing she heard was Inuyasha say, "Bastard, I'll make you pay for what you did to Kagome!" in a very dangerous tone.

            When she opened her eyes, she found herself lying down on a quiet pasture; it looked very familiar. The only sounds she heard were of the soft breeze going through the field and a pair of pairs, one playfully chasing the other. She ran until she reached a certain lake. There was a hidden location there, just as she remembered it. She sat there until she fell asleep. When she woke up again, she noticed a pair of familiar looking children sitting next to her. They giggled when she almost jumped out of her skin.

            "So?" the boy kid asked her.

            "So… what?"

            "So, how did it go?" the girl kid asked.

            "How did what go?"

            "Did we live happily together forever?" they both asked simultaneously in a very enthusiastic manner.

            "Oh," Kagome said gloomily. "We didn't get married."

            "What? Why not?" the boy demanded. The girl next to him looked like she was o the verge of tears.

            "Well, its all your fault," Kagome said, childishly pointing a finger at the boy.

             "I'm sorry…" the boy said sincerely, the way little kids do when they really are. Kagome gave herself a mental slap for talking to him like that.

            "I'm sorry too," Kagome said soothingly to the pair. "It's not really your fault. Even if things didn't go wrong, we still couldn't be happy; the Temple got broken."

            "What! Why?" they both said in unison. The girl looked like she was about to cry again.

            "Well, there was this bad guy called Naraku and he ended up ruining everything." Kagome said to the disappointed pair.

            "But the lady in the lake said that Naraku would lose and we could be happy," the boy huffed.

            "What lady in the lake?" Kagome said, unaware that there was anyone else there.

            "Her," the boy said, pointing at the lake.

            "I don't see her," Kagome said, turning back to the kids; they weren't there.

            "Good luck!" they waved as they ran away from the lake.

            "That's not nice," Kagome said as she got up to chase after them. But her feet didn't touch hard ground like it was supposed to. Instead, she saw that she was hanging in space as everything around her slowly disappeared. Everything went black and she suddenly felt that she was lying on something hard again. She opened her eyes and saw a red sky, on the fringe of turning into night.

            What that boy said just as her dream ended went through her head again. _But the lady in the lake said that Naraku would lose and we could be happy._ Her face softened as she remembered that Inuyasha was about to fight Naraku just as she went unconscious. She quickly got up, expecting to see her childhood love standing victoriously over a slain Naraku. Reality was a bitch.

            Her hearing suddenly came back and she heard laughing. She turned to see who it was. To her horror, it was Naraku laughing maniacally over a bloody spasming Inuyasha. She gave out an ear-piercing scream as she scrambled to his side, not caring that his butcher was a few feet away.

            "Inuyasha, speak to me!" Kagome said, tears streaming down her face.

            "Kag…" Inuyasha managed to say as he raised his hand to caress her face. She put her hand over his, but became very afraid when she felt how cold it was.

            "Wait for me," Inuyasha managed to say as his hand fell to the ground.

            "No," Kagome said, disbelieving what was happening. "Don't leave me Inuyasha. Not again!" she cried, willing for him to come back to life. She put the Sacred Jewel of life in his hands in a final attempt to save his life. They diamond stayed inactive. Kagome cried over his dead body as Naraku started laughing again, tearing from the absurdity of it all.

            "Know your place, Hanyou," Naraku said after he was done laughing. The he started walking away as the last rays of the sun were disappearing.

            "Naraku…" Kagome said quietly. _You know what you want. All you have to do is be true to your heart._

            "What was that princess?" he said, turning around so that he could see her. He was knocked away by a spasm of miko energy. Naraku quickly collected himself, amazed that the princess had such power. He looked at her and saw her glowing with a purple/pink aura around her.

            "Inuyasha was the one thing I truly wanted… and _you_… you took him away!" she said, firing more energy at him. _It is the only way you will be able to save the one you love,_ K'Shief's voice rang in her head again.

            _How did this happen?_ Naraku thought to himself. _Could it be that _she _was the chosen one?_ She seemed to be really bright, since the sun was gone and the moon wasn't visible.

            Kagome attacked him again, but this time she faltered. It seemed that her energy was getting low.

            "Is that it?" Naraku taunted, trying to pull the same maneuver he had pulled so long ago. If this girl was the same, all he had to do was expend her energy and attack. Kagome's face seemed hesitant as she pondered what she should do. She also knew that she was running out of energy.

            "I just ask you to do one simple thing, and there you go trying to get all the glory for yourself," someone said behind her. Both Naraku and Kagome turned back to see who it was.

            There stood Inuyasha holding Tetsaiga over his shoulder, completely healed, but slightly different. Obviously, his robe had a huge bloody gash running across it. The other difference was the he looked human; his eyes and hair were raven black, and his fangs and claws were gone.

            _Wake up Inuyasha. You're not dead… yet._ Inuyasha woke up in a pool of his own blood.

            "Huh? What's going on?" Inuyasha said, surprised someone called him by his real name. The last person that called him by that (intentionally) was his mother.

            "You are not meant to die yet. Not so long as the prophecy still stands," a heavenly voice said.

            "Who are you? _Where_ are you?" Inuyasha said panicked. He saw his hands and realized that he had claws. He felt fangs with his tongue and noticed his hair had gone white.

            "What have you done to me!?" he screamed into the air.

            "_I_ haven't done anything to you," his pool of blood said to him. He jumped back in surprise. "It is just the manifestation of your demonic heritage," it said as pure water separated from the puddle, taking the shape of a woman.

            "W-what the hell?" Inuyasha stuttered.

            "My name is Gaea," it said. "I am the spirit of the Earth. You, mortal, will be one of my tools."

            "Why the hell should I help you? You said so yourself that I saved my own life, so I don't owe you for anything," Inuyasha said, fronting.

            "Because if you help me, I can help you get revenge on your father's murderer."

            "So? He's dead, and I ain't."

            "I see. Well, then, if you help me, I can help you protect your precious Princess."

            "Is that a threat?" Inuyasha said, growling. He became surprised when he noticed it.

            "Yes it is. If you don't help me, a very evil being will hurt her."

            "What? Where is he, I'll shred him apart!"

            "Impatient, aren't we?" she said, putting her hands to her hips. She formed a seat under him and told him to sit, and he actually listened. She ionized the air next to her and it formed a screen that showed images from the speaker's mind. Then she told him a tale about how she had a cataclysmic battle with an evil person called Naraku. She then went forward in time and told him about how he was the son of the Demon Lord of the Western lands and how he was arranged to be married to Kagome when they were only children so that the two previous kingdoms could merge. As all this was going on, Inuyasha spied a bird that was just hovering above a branch. He automatically thought hummingbird, but realized it wasn't hovering, it was frozen in the air; time had stopped.

            She then continued on about the great battle between Naraku and his father and the death of everyone except his mother (who turned out to be the Queen!). Then she finally reached the present and told him that it was that very same Naraku that was trying to invade his home with the demons.

            Which finally led her to what she wanted him to do. She gave him instructions on how to join something called the D-Knights. She also told him about his half-brother Sesshomaru and how he would be the one to join the D-Knights and introduce him to his mother. She then told him about The Prophecy she made long ago and where he fit in with it, including what Kagome had to do with it. After that, she said that that was all he really needed to know from her and she started to go back to a puddle.

            "Wait!" Inuyasha said, millions of questions popping into his head.

            "There is one more thing," she said, just as she was almost gone. "Here. He'll help you find my gods. They will help you in your final battle with Naraku. He should also be able to answer any other questions you have left. If I stretch time any longer, Naraku will surely notice me." With that she disappeared.

            "Wait a second," Inuyasha said to himself. "Who was she talking about?" He slapped his face, feeling something sucking his blood.

            "Sorry," something said.

            "Who was that?" Inuyasha said, extending his claws.

            "The guy on your hand!" Myoga said.

            "Who goes there!" someone said darkly.

            "That's your brother, Sesshomaru," Myoga squeaked as he hid inside Inuyasha's robes. True to his word, Inuyasha noticed a man that looked like his brother's description approaching.

            "Sesshomaru, right?" Inuyasha said.

            "How did you know that?" Sesshomaru said dangerously, unsheathing his sword. That led to a series of events where Inuyasha's arm got sliced, which gave Sesshomaru his scent and proof of their bond. After some persuasion and almost beheading Sesshomaru with his own sword, Inuyasha got him to admit of the existence of the D-Knights and he convinced him to let him join. Sesshomaru demanded they leave immediately, but Inuyasha wanted to stay a little bit longer as his house continued to burn down. He didn't have to worry about exterminating any more demons, since the other D-Knights had already killed them all.

            Inuyasha sat by a tree that let him lean on it and face the burning cottage. He took out a piece of paper and started writing on it. Unfortunately, his arm was trailing blood on it and some fell on it. When he was done writing it, he threw it at the fire, sure that letting Kagome read it would hurt his ultimate mission. Suddenly changing his mind, he took it back and blew out the fire that was burning it from the bottom. He ran into the woods and looked for a person with a particular scent. When he found her, he simply stood in front of her, grabbed her hand and said "Give this to Kagome," and left. When the woman looked at her hands she saw the note, folded up.

            Over the next few months, Inuyasha sought after the 'gods' that Gaea and Myoga were telling him about. He also found his father's grave where he acquired a sword named 'Tetsaiga.' With every god he found, more of Inuyasha's powers were unlocked. The D-Knights had gotten him to infiltrate Naraku's circles in an attempt to overthrow him, since it was reported that he was going to invade once again. He met his mom and she told him what she knew, which was almost what he knew, but without some other crucial facts. He would have told her about them, but Gaea had made him promise to keep everything a secret, even to her. He became a triple agent, working for Naraku, under cover for his kingdom, undercover for Gaea. All he wanted to do was protect Kagome, but he had things he needed to do. When he was finally prepared, he just had to wait for the day when Naraku would call upon him to kidnap Kagome. Until then, he just watched Kagome from afar.

            He also found out that every new moon, he went back to human form where he found out something startling…

            "You!" Naraku said annoyed. "I thought I killed you already?"

            "Inuyasha!" Kagome said happily and ran toward him, hugging him by the neck. After he could pry Kagome away from himself, he said:

            "Yeah… but no. The Jewel seems to like to only heal humans… but see, I kinda go completely human whenever there's a new moon, so the Sacred Jewel was able to heal me. But you should have already known that," Inuyasha said cockily. Naraku mentally slapped himself for his error. But her knew that wasn't all there was to it.

            "In losing your demon form, you have also lost your demonic strength. So stay out of the way while I fight the chosen one. Your time will come soon enough," Naraku said evilly and readied himself to attack Kagome. He threw a sword at her, but a barrier blocked it.

            "Hey, baka, your fight is with me!" Inuyasha said angrily.

            "Fight? You are hardly worth the time in your state. No, my fight is with the chosen one," he said, setting up for another run. Kagome prepared to fire another burst to protect her love. _This time I won't let you kill him._

"There you go again! How many times do I have to tell you, your fight is with _me_, since _I'm_ the chosen one."

            "Don't make me laugh," Naraku said, shooting miasma at the two. The barrier stood.

            "Like I said to you before," Inuyasha said. "I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to Kagome," he said, and showed the diamonds (that were embedded on the Tetsaiga, but Inuyasha took them out while Kagome and Naraku were fighting), "and I'm gonna kick your ass with these."

            "What are you gonna do, throw them at me?" Naraku said, laughing at the thought.

            "I'm gonna do this," Inuyasha said, and threw them into the air. But what went up didn't go down. The diamonds hung in the air until it made the bottom part of a pentagon over Inuyasha.

            "Kagome, stay back and please don't do anything unless I tell you this time," Inuyasha quietly told her.

            "Okay," she said and quickly went behind him. Obviously he had some clue as to what was going on.

            "You know, Naraku, my demon form is actually a restraint," Inuyasha said to Naraku as a blue fire engulfed him.

            "What is that supposed to mean?" he said, taken aback with what was happening.

            "I can only use my full power when I'm human," he said with a lopsided grin. Suddenly, four bright beams of pulsating came flying from the directions the diamonds were pointing to and started circling him. Both Kagome and Naraku moved back in surprise.

            The lights slowed down and each stood under a diamond. The shards of the Shikon Jewel suddenly flew into the air and converged at the missing vertex of the pentagon behind Inuyasha.

            "Kagome, be a dear and stand under that, will you?" Inuyasha calmly said to her.

            "Okay," she said and did as instructed. When she stepped under the Shikon Jewel, the beams of light dimmed as the diamonds above them glowed.

            "Kagome," K'Shief said. "Now is the time to save your love."

            "K'Shief?" Kagome said in astonishment. The beams of light were really the four gods that they had met during their travels.

            "Kagome, can you please lend your power to the Shikon Jewel?" Ix'il asked.

            "Sure, but how?"

            "Just do what you did to Naraku," Telerep said, smiling. She did as she was told and the Jewel glowed. The jewelry above Inuyasha started spinning and the gods, with Kagome, retreated behind Inuyasha once again. Inuyasha held Tetsaiga up, pointing at the center of their orbits. He let go and it floated.

            "Where were you guys?" Kagome asked while the jewels were still spinning.

            "Just chillin' on mount Olympus," Telerep said. "But it really sucked. No one's been there for a few centuries,"

            "Was it really cold up there?" Kagome asked, confused of his use of the word 'chilling'. Before he could reply, the jewels were orbiting really close to each other and seemed to melt onto Tetsaiga's shaft. Inuyasha grabbed it as the sword started changing, its hilt conforming to his hand. The shaft of the sword flattened out and bent back, like an Arabian sword. When the show was over, Inuyasha inspected the still glowing sword.

            "Its cooler than Gaea said it was!" he exclaimed.

            "You haven't gotten any stronger than you were a few minutes ago!" Naraku said, inwardly sighing.

            "Show ain't over yet, bastard," he said, signaling to the gods. The all nodded in confirmation and started to fly around him in a tight circle, reconverting into beams of light. They started spinning so fast it seemed like a really large halo was surrounding Inuyasha. Within seconds, the halo started shrinking until it was around his neck. In a brilliant flash, the halo lost its glow and revealed a necklace- a necklace Kagome hadn't seen in years. _So it really is you…_

            "You are still nothing!" Naraku gloated. He noticed that there was a blue fire surrounding Inuyasha, which made his hair swirl as if in a gust. Little by little his power level increased until the gods exploded out of him. Immediately, his power sharply increased, and kept increasing.

            Naraku could only watch. He stopped when he lost feeling to his arm. "What the hell?"

            "Yo!" Inuyasha said, standing right next to him. "Looking for this?" he said, showing him his arm, which was spewing demons that were running, slivering and flying away.

            "How can this be?" Naraku said as he fired a burst of miasma from the new hole in his body. Inuyasha stood there with his new sword in front of him. The attack didn't even faze him. Frustrated, Naraku shot a few of his bones at him as he jumped away in retreat.

            Faster than the eye could see, Inuyasha was behind him with the new Tetsaiga across his neck.

            "Goodbye, and go to hell," he said as he chopped his head off. It rolled off the floor and his body exploded in a frenzy of demons trying to finally get free. With one swift move, Inuyasha unleashed a storm of wrath, annihilating them all in one swing (kind of like the Kaze-no-Kizu but with vortexes of blue fire.). The gods all immediately surrounded Naraku's head to keep him from escaping.

            "What have you done!" Naraku's head said.

            "Just softened you up a bit," he said as the gods suspended Naraku's head in the air. Naraku only gaped at him. "What? You thought I would actually be the one to kill you? No, that's her job," he said, gesturing in the direction of Kagome. They all looked where he was pointing and saw a lake.

            "Yo, I would like to have this done before dawn!" Inuyasha said impatiently.

            "Impatient as usual," a heavenly voice said. Someone came out of the lake. The being flew from there to where Inuyasha was standing. The person was female and was a glowing transparent blue.

            "Gaea? I thought I killed you so long ago!" Naraku's head said.

            "Well, you weren't the only one who managed to survive. I also sealed myself when I sealed you in an effort to give me time to finish you off. Now that that's done, I will _finally_ be rid of you," she said, and ate his head, whole.

            "No!" his head bubbled as it went inside of her liquid body. It bobbed around in there for a while, but some king of light attacked him and he turned to dust.

            "Finally!" Gaea said.

            "Eww…" Kagome said.

            "WTF?" the gods said in their heads.

            "Now that that's done, I should leave," Gaea said.

            "Hey, Gaea," Inuyasha asked as the jewels separated from the demonic Tetsaiga and went on her ears like earrings, forehead and fingers like rings.

            "Yes Inuyasha?"

            "What kind of beef did you have with him?"

            "He ate my share of the Titans," she brooded.

            "Eww…" Kagome gagged. The gods sighed as the followed her away. Telerep mouthed 'Have fun!' and winked at Inuyasha as they all left in a flash.

            "Well, princess, it seems we are alone." Inuyasha said as he walked up to Kagome "Finally," he said, coming closer to her. Her face was wrought with emotions, probably a mix of fear, anguish, happiness excitement and relief (among other things).

            "Yes," she said, leaning closer to his face. Inuyasha could see in her eyes that she rapidly wanted to cover the years that they had lost between each other. "And there's one thing that I've been wanting to do with you for so long, Tamago," she whispered.

            "Yeah, and what's that?" Inuyasha said, moving his face even closer. Birds started chirping as they woke up from a good night's sleep.

            "I wanted to say…" she said, as their lips almost touched. "Sit."

            Inuyasha kissed ground, after the necklace around his neck pushed him down with the impulse of a truck hitting a brick wall. Kagome giggled as Inuyasha complained as he rolled over onto his back. "What was that for?"

            "I've wanted to do that for so long," she said, straddling on top of him and causing him to exhale. Before he could say another word, she went forward and gave him a passionate kiss. "And I wanted to do that to," she said when they broke the kiss. When she opened her eyes she saw that he was back to the form he had when he kidnapped her; it was dawn.

            "Getting a bit cozy, aren't we brother?" Sesshomaru said, forcing the two to stop looking at each other's eyes. He saw Sango and some of the other D-Knights gag. Sango suddenly bolted upright and turn beat red as Miroku groped her behind.

            Kagome blushed as Inuyasha gave them a glare that could kill. Everyone (even Sesshomaru, to a degree…) started laughing.

Then a big asteroid which was accelerated from a rail gun from a space station from somewhere in the asteroid belt crashed on the still floating platform, causing it to explode, taking everyone on top of it. Me and Gaea high fived each other as we laughed out heads off at Naraku, who was paying us the money he lost on our little bet!

Naw… but that would've been really gay (or straight, depending on your point of view…) of me to do.

It's over! I dunno if any1 will like how I ended it, but it's done! And I know I butchered the Greek/roman mythology, but I didn't feel like relearning all o' that stuff.

Notes about this fic: It was a long, _long _fic! Too many notes for me to release, though I would like to mention that I may release an Oh/Ah My Goddess! fic sometime this summer on fanfiction.net, depending on how bored I am, how much I read, how much computer games I play and how much college make me nervous! But till then, peace!

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarftyahoo.com

XP


End file.
